The Situation in New York
by Kyprish Prophetess
Summary: The problem with having a specialized team is that the members are themselves rather... special.
1. Chapter 1

He was getting very tired of the government. All he had wanted to do was retire quietly, keep himself from hurting more people. Help who he could, in places where the monsters under their beds didn't have green skin.

He'd done well enough, knowing what he did about medicine. Enough to be of service to help, when no real doctors were available.

He'd thought that they had lost him, or he them, and he could go on without notice if he stayed quiet.

The red-haired woman in front of him proved him wrong.

"I'm a representative of SHIELD." Of course she was. At least she wasn't there to kill him. He didn't want to kill everyone in the village when the Other Guy decided to come out.

She's talking about some potential threat, some power source that could destroy the world that he needs to help locate. They want him, not the Other Guy, to come to their base and locate a glowing blue cube.

"_Stop lying to me!"_ It's mean, and he apologized, but it does explain. She is a natural liar, someone he doesn't trust. He doesn't want to go with her, or the dozen or so men he knows now are waiting outside, guns at the ready for him. He wants to stay, screw their Tessaract or whatever it is, he just wants to be _left alone._

He followed her and the soldiers out of the hut instead, hoping she hadn't lied, this Natasha Romanov, and that he'd be home free after he found their Cube.

_XxX_

The Carrier is a hive of activity, which isn't unusual. He avoided touching anything, tried to avoid the people as well. It's an unconscious reaction to military; they cause him undue stress, after all.

He can see Agent Romanov, talking to someone that, until a few hours ago, he'd thought had died in the Artic. Granted, most people thought that.

"Dr. Banner. I heard you can find this thing."

"Is that all you heard?" He can't help it, pointing to the elephant in the room. It's huge, green, and always watching him. He likes to see people's reactions, likes knowing what they're going to do.

"Only word I care about." That's… not what he was expecting. Captain America, the man he'd been trying to copy, didn't care? He would've thought that anger would be his first reaction.

But he wouldn't pretend to understand people.

_XxX_

The lab they gave him is nice. State of the art, really, and he knows, just _knows, _that this wasn't made by SHIELD. There's an… elegance to the programs, the equipment and interfaces, that _screams _someone who's entire life is simply creating computers. They're practically art, and he almost regrets having to run after this. He misses his labs, his research and comfort.

He misses Betty, and people who knew him and weren't scared off by it. He can see the fear in their faces. It grates on him, and he stays away from them all, working in the lab.

He watched as Loki walked past, looking smug despite the cuffs, and catches his eye. Immediately, the world becomes blue, scared and angry.

He felt lost, confused, like the entire world he knew is slowly disintegrating before his eyes and it is somehow all_ his fault_ and there are bodies, frozen, bloody, crushed and he can't thinkhecan'tthinkhecan't-

And it's gone, as soon as it came. Loki looked away, smirk still in place, but his eyes look troubled.

He rubbed his temples, and wished that there was no meeting about this new development. As interesting as it will be to examine the scepter, he doesn't want to leave the comfort of the whirring machines and lack of people.

An escort to the bridge entered the room, looking nervous, and gestured out the door without speaking.

_XxX_

"You can _smell _the crazy on him." The comment pops out of his mouth, unbidden, and he kind of regrets it, but thankfully Thor, the guy's brother, becomes distracted by the death count. Seriously, though, _Thor?_ When had folktales and legends started coming to life?

… Likely when Captain America was thawed out and discovered to be breathing.

He'd been explaining what Loki was getting the Iridium for, and what he needed to track down the Tessaract, when another voice chimed in.

He recognized it, vaguely, from TV. But it was one thing to hear Tony Stark, CEO and R&D Wonder of Stark Industries, and quite another to have him walk into the room, nonchalantly pat Thor on the shoulder and walk forward to the deck that oversees the rest of the bridge.

"That man in playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." He's smiling, just a bit, looking down and watching from the corner of his eye. This is a serious situation, he shouldn't find things funny, but it was refreshing, somebody else who wasn't military.

Then, he'd started talking about the Tessaract, and the portal, and he was blown away by the fact that Stark, apparently, wasn't just the _face _of innovation and Starktech, he was its actual creator. The face he'd seen on TV, even in conferences and in reference to the many things SI came out with, wasn't clicking with the man in front of him, crowing that he'd found someone who speaks English.

"And I'm a real big fan of the way you turn into a giant green rage-monster." Wait, what?

"Thanks." He responded automatically, staring. Out of everyone he'd met, every person he'd interacted with since the accident, _this _was the man who decided to look and see the Other Guy? The one thing nobody wanted to talk about, that elephant in the room, and this guy, Tony Stark, Iron Man, was the one who decides _'aw, fuck it, let's talk about what everybody else is avoiding'_?

He found himself looking forward to the return to the lab, and not for the reasons he'd had when he left.

_XxX_

Tony, as he'd insisted from the moment they'd entered the lab, had apparently created the computers within. Of course.

He managed to hold back from worshipping at the guys feet, barely, and instead just allowed a reverent tone to slip out as he spoke of the ease. Tony, surprisingly, doesn't ask him what he'd been doing in India, or anything too personal. He'd been expecting this man to try and break into all his boundaries.

Instead, he asked about his work before, what he had missed, girlfriends, in between writing a program one-handed and random comments to what appeared to be a Blue Tooth in his ear.

It was apparently linked to an AI he'd created. He hadn't said what said AI, JARVIS, was doing, but Bruce had his suspicions.

Tony didn't trust SHIELD either.

What was odd was that he'd brought food. No, scratch that, it was that he was sharing said food. Blueberries, just holding out a plastic bag of them like they'd known each other for years, like they were two kids eating candy on the sidewalk, sharing because they could, because they were simply enjoying being there. He'd lost track of that metaphor partially, but the point stood.

_XxX_

_Hulk didn't know why this one didn't smell of fear. They all did. Fear. Pain. Anger. Hulk didn't like that Light Man didn't. Confusing. Confusing things made Hulk angry. Angry broke things. That caused Fear. Hulk just wanted pain to stop. Humans hurt Hulk. Hulk wanted to be away from them all._

_Maybe not this one, the one who gave Other Him small berries and grinned. Light Man smelled of sadness and hope. Maybe Hulk would stay around, if Light Man was there._

_XxX_

Captain America, Steve Rogers, walked into the lab, probably hoping for information on how the search was going. Unfortunately, he got sidetracked at seeing Tony, in his first 'test' of the Other Guy, jab him with… something. Bruce was fairly sure that he'd only done it when he saw Rogers walking their way, through the glass walls, but had no idea why that would be.

"No offense."

I wouldn't have come aboard if I wasn't up to… pointy things." He reassured him, as he watched Tony prowl and grin at his statement. He had expected to be poked and prodded, by SHIELD or some medical branch of it, to determine his limits or see the damage the Other Guy had done. Nothing so far, but they were having a crisis.

Tony was provoking Rogers, that was the only reason Bruce could find for his behavior. It was like a little boy dipping his crushes pigtails in the inkwell, or something to that extent. He'd even checked him out, a few times now, as he'd walked around. And he could understand, the guy was attractive (if you were into that), but _why?_ What was fighting going to help?

Rogers rounded on him, demanding he tell what he thought of Fury lying, or hiding something. He resisted the urge to snort, even as he pointed out the 'bright light for all of humanity to share' comment. Rogers had to have read his file; of course he would suspect Fury of something.

He just wanted to avoid thinking about it, and hoped it wasn't something that he would regret not pursuing later. Tony had other ideas; JARVIS had been spying on SHIELD files after all.

Rogers left, angry and… disappointed? Maybe he'd been expecting more order-following, less questioning, from them when the world was depending on them.

"That's the guy my father never shut up about?" Bruce looked back up from the screen, to see Tony looking out the door that Rogers had just walked out of. That said a lot more than anything he said afterwards, and to be honest Bruce hadn't heard the words anyway. He'd just seen his reflection. The Hulk stared back, watching not him, but Tony, pacing up and down the floor.

_XxX_

_Tony. Other Him said Light Man was Tony. Hulk liked Tony. Tony even poked Other Him with a something, and wasn't afraid Hulk would show up. Tony seemed funny. _

_Blond Man didn't smell afraid. He didn't like Tony playing with Hulk._

_Other Him looked at Hulk in the glass, but Hulk watched Tony. Hulk wanted to see if Tony was afraid of Hulk as himself. _

_Hulk didn't want Tony to be scared. Hulk didn't like scaring. Hulk didn't like hurting either, though. People liked hurting Hulk. Pain made Hulk angry._

_XxX_

"You're saying that the H- The Other Guy saved my life? For what?"

"I guess we'll find out." Tony rubbed the light under his shirt. He was wearing several, Bruce could see. To dim the light? It wasn't particularly cold in the Helicarrier. A terrible privilege was an interesting way of referring to something that, from what he could discern from the report (unclear and looked to be edited), had nearly killed him several different ways.

If the Other Guy was a terrible privilege, was he wasting it in remote villages around the world? Or was the patience that came with it what was more helpful to those people he had gone to save?

_XxX_

He was yelling, he could tell, but all he could feel was the roaring in his ears that usually came with the Other Guy forcing his way through to the surface, as a defense or attack, he never knew. He was angry, at Romanov for lying through her teeth, at Fury for his bombs, at Loki for _letting them near that staff, what is it doing, I want to killkillkill-_

The computer goes off. He comes back to himself, set the sceptar down, walked to the display.

"Oh my God."

The whole world goes red, loud, and then green, and nothing.

_XxX_

_Red Hair stared at Hulk, and Hulk was ANGRY. Red Hair was lying, they all lied, and Hulk hurt. Hurt from the fall, the fight. Hulk didn't hit Red Hair, when the pain faded. Red Hair looked scared. It was the first time Red Hair looked scared._

_Pain lanced his side. Hulk roared. A new man, cape and hammer, stood there. Cape Man tried to talk to Hulk, tell Hulk they were not-enemies. Cape Man had hit Hulk. Hulk didn't trust Cape Man. Hulk hit back._

_Cape Man was strong. Hulk couldn't lift Cape Man's hammer, punched Cape Man again. _

_Gunfire lanced his skin. Hulk growled, turned, leapt onto the plane. Hulk ripped the gunman out, tossed him in the air. Hulk crashed into a building, far below. The birds flew away. Hulk didn't want to scare anybody. Hulk let go._

_XxX_

If he let the Hulk take over, let go of his control, he remained somewhat conscious. He couldn't directly take over his body, but he could see, remember, try and talk to the Hulk. Who wouldn't always be open to reason, but it was all he could do.

With whatever had happened on the Helicarrier, he had no memory. No, that was a lie. He remembered seeing Natasha, collapsed on the ground, terrified, trying to reassure him and keep him calm. He remembered seeing her, as both Bruce and the Hulk, and stopping, before it went blank. He could only guess someone had distracted him.

There was a man above him, tossed clothes down as he said, casually,

"Son, you've got a condition." And he laughed, because what else could he do? Got dressed, thanked the man, asked if he knew the fastest way to New York.

"Heard it's a right mess at the moment. You sure you want to go that way?" Bruce nodded, felt like it was the first time in a long time he wasn't running away.

"Yeah. Got some friends there, and as you said, I have a condition that'll help." The man had a motor scooter, or whatever they were called. Bruce climbed on, took the helmet with a small chuckle, and thanked the man again.

"Good luck. I see you on TV, I'll be rooting for ya."

_XxX_

"Well, this looks terrible." He walked up to the group, eyeing the new man. He carried a bow, and looked like he'd seen better weeks. They all carried an air of… well, determination and fear, which he supposed made sense. He just felt… calm, like he fit into his skin again. It wasn't a feeling he'd had in a long time.

Steve was talking on his com, telling Tony he'd been right. Bruce could have told him that; Tony was remarkably correct, from what he'd seen of the man. Strange, inconsiderate and rude at times, but often on or close to the mark.

"I've seen worse." Natasha was watching him closely. He had no idea what she was trying to find.

"I'm sorry." He knew, as did she, that he wasn't just referring to what she must have gone through to say that."

"No, we could use worse." Her small smile said, he hoped, that he was forgiven. It would take a while for him to believe it.

"Now would be a good time to get angry." He grinned at Steve, who somehow managed not to look ridiculous in that old styled suit of his (which shouldn't even be possible, seriously), and began walking towards the whale-like monster Tony was leading their way.

"That's my secret, Cap. I'm always angry."

The battle field blurred into the Hulk's vision, but for once he didn't feel out of control.

_XxX_

_There was a flying fish. Hulk hit it, and it collapsed, falling down from the sky. Blond Man, Captain, pointed to people, talking. Tony was red and gold, shiny metal instead of skin. Hulk didn't understand. Bruce said Red Man was Tony, under metal. Safety. Armor. Hulk was Other Him's Armor, sometimes. Captain looked at Hulk._

"_Hulk? Smash." He grinned._

_Hulk found Horn Man. Horn Man yelled, said things that Hulk didn't understand. Hulk knew that Horn Man caused the bad things. Hulk smashed Horn Man first. _

"_Puny God."_

_Hulk hit Cape Man, in the fight. Hulk knew why Cape Man had hit Hulk. Hulk was still angry. Hulk decided that would make them even. Hulk didn't want to not like Cape Man. Cape Man liked to smash._

_Other Him said Cape Man was Thor. Hulk might like Thor._

_XxX_

He could see, and could understand, when Tony went for that missile and flew straight into the portal. The Hulk was confused, but knew it was a man they both liked, going a way he wouldn't likely come back from.

They were all frozen, watching him go up, up and gone. The creatures, all of them, fell, linked somehow to their original home, whatever it was that was now obliterated by the nuke.

A shape fell from the sky, and he cheered, before realizing that it wasn't stopping, not looping cheerfully like he'd expect, _not moving, ohmygod-_

The Hulk thought faster than him for once, didn't stop before leaping and catching the small shape of red and gold plummeting from the sky.

He held him close, collapsing onto the ground in a heap. Steve ripped the faceplate off (and wouldn't Tony be pissed, he loved those suits, and this one was new), and Tony wasn't breathing.

The light was out. The arc reactor wasn't on, wasn't stopping the shrapnel from entering his heart which wasn't beating.

He roared, anger and frustration and fear pouring out of his mouth. Tony jolted, reactor whirring to life in a flash, gasping.

Bruce couldn't help the thought, _'good job, Hulk. You did it.'_

He certainly wasn't expecting the response.

'_We. Bruce and Hulk. Team.'_

_XxX_

_Tony was falling. Hulk jumped, caught Tony. Tony could fly, had flown in the battle. Tony was hurt, if Tony stopped falling._

_Captain pulled off Tony's gold face. Tony's normal face was closed. Tony was not breathing. Tony's light was off. It should not be off, Bruce said. Bruce said it kept Tony alive._

_Hulk was scared. Hulk did not want Tony hurt. If Tony was hurt, he could be alone again. Hulk liked Tony, wanted to see if he was afraid of Hulk as Hulk._

_Hulk roared, loud with grief and anger._

_Tony's eyes opened, his Light turning on. Hulk had saved Tony?_

_Bruce said yes. Bruce said Hulk saved Tony, told Hulk good job._

'We. Bruce and Hulk. Team.' _They were team. Bruce and Hulk could never be different, so they should be team._

_If they were a team, Tony would stay. Thor might. Captain and Red Hair and Arrow Man could stay. Team meant safety, and nobody afraid of Hulk._

_XxX_

He rides with Tony to the seeing-off. It made sense, he was living at the Tower. Officially, to help with renovations, before he left again. The reality was more complicated.

Tony wanted to make floors for all of them, was working on the plans now. He had only told Bruce and Pepper, thus far.

"I wanted you to know, before you leave again. Even if you want to run off, leave the country before Fury tries to hold you, and I will totally help if he does, but I wanted you to know you had somewhere you could go, no matter what. Doors always open." He hadn't looked up from the repairs he was doing on the suit.

"You got a bed I can borrow in the meantime?" Tony had looked up, shocked and pleased.

"What? Yeah, I have a bed. I have so many beds I could house all of SHIELD. Don't tell Fury, he'd actually try, and I do not need that much oppressed humor in this Tower, nope." His face was grateful. Tony didn't want to be alone.

They watched as Loki was taken away, said their goodbyes to each other. He waited by the car as Tony walked to the new guy, now known as Clint Barton, or Hawkeye. Tony said something quickly, quietly, and handed him a small file, before walking back to the car.

"What was that?" Tony grinned, starting the engine. From the mirror, Bruce could see Barton's face look raw, shocked, and hopeful, all at once.

"The reports of certain Agents deaths have been greatly exaggerated. I gave him proof, looked like he needed it." Bruce nodded, and settled in as Tony talked of the plans for the Tower, rooms that he wasn't sure would ever be filled, but would be created anyway, as carefully as the computers in the Helicarrier.

He felt peaceful, more so than he had in a long time. The Hulk, somewhere in his mind, quietly agreed.


	2. Chapter 2

It was normal in her line of work to find herself tied up, dressed to impress (read: seduce), with some pretentious target looming over her, bragging they'd gotten the drop on the Black Widow.

It wasn't always the goal, but Natasha couldn't deny that this method if interrogation got results, sometimes better than whatever the real plan had been.

All was going according to plan (B) when Minion #1's cell-phone began to ring. Silence. She watched as he answered, before turning to the General.

"It's for her." She could hear the voice on the other line now, as he threatened to blow the entire building to pieces.

It was entirely possible he meant it, knowing Coulson. He didn't threaten, he promised.

The phone was handed to her. She didn't bother with an accent; her cover was already blown. It didn't stop her from arguing with her handler, though, if only to see the smug look drop from the target's face when he realized exactly how much he'd let slip while she was tied there.

"Barton's been compromised." The world stopped.

"Let me put you on hold." She couldn't deal with her feelings, not now, not now. She could fight, had to fight, if she didn't focus on that she would succumb and that would be dangerous. Danger, danger, danger…

Natasha picked up the phone again, and the heels she'd worn to the beginning of the mission. SHIELD should stop giving her nice clothing for missions, it was inevitably ruined.

"You get the big guy." Natasha rolled her eyes.

"You know Stark trusts me as far as he can throw me." She'd been perfectly comfortable with that mission in the beginning; get close to Mr. Billionaire, make a report of his mental state, or get the secrets to the Iron Man, whatever was more feasible later on.

When she'd gotten closer, however, she'd been struck by how he was acting. Immature, yeah, and unreasonable. But it didn't fit with his pattern of behavior directly after his return from Afghanistan. He'd been solely focused on taking down Middle East terrorists.

He seemed to be going backwards from his pre kidnap days, even. She'd pointed this out, very early, but Fury insisted on her continuation. She, and Coulson, to an extent, hadn't been pleased to discover that Fury already had an idea about Stark's strange behavior. Namely, dying.

"Oh, I'll handle Stark. You get the big guy."

The big guy?

_XxX_

Great. They sent her after the Hulk.

Natasha read the report as the pilot navigated from Russia to a tiny airport in the middle of India. She knew most of the information, it was just a way to keep herself distracted.

Barton. Agent Barton, the one who helped her out of Russia, into SHIELD-

No. Hulk. Dr. Bruce Banner, who was working as a medical doctor in the poorer regions of the world. How was that helping him stay calm? Did imminent civilian deaths if he had an incident help him control his other side?

The little girl ran through the house, scrambling out the window as the Doctor entered. He muttered something under his breath, looking unsurprised. He looked up as she walked forward.

"For a man avoiding stress, you picked an odd place to settle down." He shrugged, looking uninterested.

"That isn't the secret." She tried to stay interested, tried to stay engaged, but all that was running through her head was 'Barton's been compromised.' Her mouth moved of its' own accord, really, platitudes and carefully planned hints that he could leave when he was done, but they could always find him.

"This is the Tessaract."

"What does Fury want me to do, swallow it?" He seemed to actually consider that option, as he read through the limited data the tablet displayed.

"He wants you to find it."

"And if I say no?" Natasha smiled, all charm. She got the feeling Banner saw right through it.

"I'll persuade you." He looked straight at her, eyes serious… and exhausted. He'd looked fine running through the entrance a moment ago.

"And if the H- the Other Guy disagrees?"

"You haven't had an incident…" The conversation blurred out again. She could do this in her sleep, though with Banner, she wasn't so sure it was a good idea.

"_Stop lying to me!"_ She had her gun out before she could even blink. He grinned, apologetic and docile again. His point was made; he didn't believe, or trust her at all.

He came anyway. Basic humanity, perhaps, or just out of desire not to destroy the world.

_Report:_

Target acquired and brought back peacefully to base. Banner seems willing to help, but harbors obvious mistrust towards all military personnel and branches of the government.

_Additional Details:_

Banner will likely run as soon as his task is complete. May be harder to track afterwards. Keep monitored at all times.

_XxX_

"Has he asked you to sign his trading cards yet?" She couldn't help teasing Coulson, even when he wasn't around; it kept her mind grounded when being overly formal would be unhelpful. In front of a guy who had only recently woken up in this century, she figured he needed some kind of friendly face. Even if it was hers.

"Trading cards?" Natasha wondered if he knew exactly how powerful an image Captain America had become after he fell into the ocean. It should have been something he'd been briefed on, at any rate.

"They're vintage. He's very proud." She could see Dr. Banner walking near the edge of the Carrier, avoiding everyone. She brought Captain Rogers over in his direction, wondering what Banner would think of the Captain.

"Dr. Banner?" They introduced themselves, and Natasha could see that Banner was testing Rogers, to see his reaction to, as he said, the Other Guy. Rogers seemed to handle the test well, but Banner wasn't likely to be convinced until the Other Guy was actually out.

"Gentleman, you might want to make your way inside. It's going to get hard to breathe." They both looked around, trying to figure out why she'd said that, probably.

"Is this thing a submarine?" Logical process, she supposed. But that would be ridiculous, as the runway would be useless underwater.

"They want _me _inside a pressurized metal tube?" Banner remarked, seeming more comfortable now. They both ventured to the edge, where the propellers were beginning to be visible. She could see Banner make another comment, before they both turned and walked, a bit quickly, towards the doors inside.

_Report:_

_Captain Rogers seems to be adjusting fine to technological advances and changes in social norms. He has had no problems thus far with those of racial minorities, women agents, or any other known prejudices of his time._

_Captain Rogers also reacted well to Dr. Banner, and does not look to be having trouble with Dr. Banner's affliction._

_He has been briefed on other members of the Initiative, but only preliminary reports of abilities and weaknesses. He has not been informed of unique personal behaviors. More interaction is needed._

_XxX_

She could see Rogers talking with Director Fury, and handing him a ten dollar bill, for some reason. Banner was wandering along the edges of the room, avoiding looking at the agents, guards, and generally everything else. Military, she noted, was one of the probable triggers for his rage. Discomfort, at the very least.

Fury ordered her to take Banner to his lab after Banner finished giving a preliminary plan for tracking the Tessaract and Loki. He was interested, almost excited, when discussing his idea, and she got the impression that being surrounded by scientists would be the best place to keep him as calm as possible. Nobody really wanted to use the Hulk Cage on the lower levels.

The lab was empty, though she could see that Stark had likely been here; a few things in the corner hadn't been in the plans for the room, and some computers looked very recently upgraded.

"This is it. I hope you can work the interfaces. I'm good, but some of these are beyond me." He nodded, barely hearing her, looking like a kid in a candy store. Stark had likely made himself a new friend.

_XxX_

They got a hit, finally, on Loki's face, not the Tessaract. It struck her as a trap; from what the old myths said, he could shape shift and teleport. Why would he bother letting them see his normal face?

The Captain was all suited up, in the new uniform Coulson had designed, based on the original. Natasha had no idea if he actually liked it, or just felt more comfortable with familiarity. But either way, he looked calm, relaxed, as they flew in and he dropped, into a crowd of terrified Germans, kneeling in front of Loki, who had shifted into Asgardian armor.

"Last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everyone else, we didn't get along." She smirked, just a bit (newer agents tended to scream if she smiled), and tried not to think about how Loki knew what to do here. They'd already heard about the break-in elsewhere, and agents were dispatched, but she knew already that Cli- Barton and whoever he was leading had already taken their supplies and left.

The fight looked even, roughly. Loki was a demigod with centuries of training, or however time worked in other dimensions. Captain Rogers was a Super Soldier from the 1940's who was used to the most bizarre enemies she'd ever heard of. Their weapons were the stuff of science fiction _today, _with only a handful of people capable of creating them.

Noise blared out of the speakers, something she would never play, even if there weren't regulations against music on missions.

"Miss me?" She did smile, this time. Stark had a way of pissing you off until he abruptly didn't anymore. Immature to the extreme, except when he wasn't.

He landed heavily next to Rogers, all weapons drawn.

"Make a move, Reindeer Games." Loki slowly put his hands into the air, shifting back out of his armor into the suit he'd started in.

_Shape-shifting, check._

"Mr. Stark."

"Captain." That was likely the most polite response Rogers would ever get out of Stark. Soon, he'd know that, too.

_Target displayed highly-trained fighting techniques, matching preliminary report made _

_by Director Fury._

_While Captain Rogers appeared capable of winning the fight, and Iron Man's weapons would have done decent, if not lethal, damage, Target surrendered._

_Notes:_

_Target seems overly pleased with being caught, as well as who caught him. He has displayed no signs of attempting escape, nor of outward defiance for being in the hands of his enemies. In addition, he does not have the Tessaract, despite it being the reason he is here. _

_In conclusion: Target is plotting something, which hinges on his being captured. _

_Additional notes: Target strapped himself into the jet seat when led aboard. Unsure why._

_XxX_

Natasha prided herself on being calm and collected, but these two were testing her patience. Stark had dropped into the front, briefly, said hello and how they should thank him for coming and livening up their day. Then he'd gone into the back of the jet and stayed there, talking with Captain Rogers. It was… confusing behavior.

First, he wasn't claiming that it was entirely him that had led to Loki's capture. He loved taking credit; though, to be fair, he usually had a point. He could do without rubbing other people's faces in it.

Second, he didn't insist on flying the jet, or going back himself (in ten seconds flat, likely), or even sitting in the front and bothering her while she flew. The man was really an overgrown kid with a love for anything he could build (an astonishingly large amount of things. She forgot he was a genius sometimes).

Third, Rogers didn't look overly offended. Yet. He looked confused at times, annoyed a bit at others, but never as though Stark had just told him… well, anything Stark would usually say. Was Stark trying to behave, to impress the likely leader of the Initiative?

Not that the Initiative would be formed, in all liklihood, but the point stood. Stark knew as much as she did, he'd know who their leader would have been.

Thunder boomed, and from behind her, Rogers called out asking Loki if he was scared of a little lightning.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows." What follows? Oh no…

She began to get up, prepare for the inevitable, something, when the back hatch opened, letting in the storm. She turned, to watch as a broad man, carrying a war hammer and wearing armor, grabbed Loki and dragged him back out the doors.

Stark flew after him, calling something to Rogers, who looked a bit surprised, even as he slipped a parachute on. Stark hadn't shown his full personality, then.

"I'd sit this one out, Cap. These guys aren't from here. They're practically gods." She continued messing with the controls, trying to equalize their loss of altitude.

"There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." She couldn't help a snort, and let the doors stay open long enough for him to jump after the other two morons. And Loki.

_Captain America shows promise for dealing with Stark on a professional basis. He dealt well with the unexpected addition of Thor, as well as Stark's attitude._

_Stark shows little of the same ability, but it is unclear if this is accurate, as he is less used to dealing with people on a team of equal status, not meeting as enemies or with himself as boss. More information needed._

_Unfortunately, male binding ended in demolition of a large area of forest. Stark has already agreed to fund restorations to the area._

_XxX_

The meeting room was full of tense silence and glaring. Thor didn't take well to insults to his brother, adopted or not, and even that comment didn't feel genuine. She got the feeling that he desperately wished he hadn't said it, from the sad look that had passed over his face.

He still called him brother, which was another hint.

Banner looked nervous, even as he explained how the Tessaract would have to be used for the portal to form. Fury was… difficult to read, as usual. Rogers sat quietly, throwing out a comment here or there if he thought it would help (or if he understood a pop culture reference, which made Stark roll his eyes).

Stark was in his element, discussing a subject he barely knew with an expert and holding his own. He looked especially excited to meet Banner, even as he said,

"I'm a big fan of how you turn into a giant green rage-monster." Banner, okay, everyone in the room, had blinked in shock at the statement. Banner, shockingly enough, didn't look offended or angry, just surprised. Stark would be the one to point at one of the green elephants in the room. The green one.

Still, they at least seemed amicable as they left, Banner leading the way to where Stark would be assisting with the hunt for the Tessaract.

She went to warn the agent playing Galaga. Wouldn't do for Fury to find out. Hill hadn't seen which agent was playing.

_Stark has demonstrated that he can work on an intellectual level with another person, so long as he respects the other. He also showed an odd amount of restraint against other members of the Initiative. Possibly the grave situation._

_Team dynamics seem less and less likely to work out in a short span of time. Some push is likely to be needed._

_XxX_

Loki Silvertongue. For such a master manipulator, he wasn't very good at realizing he was being played as well. Perhaps his skills had been dulled from Asgard. Thor didn't seem the type to plot behind someone's back. She got the feeling he wouldn't be able to plan a surprise party.

Banner Hulking out was a good plan, however, so as badly as he fucked up telling you, it wouldn't make a huge difference if his plan was being instigated by another person.

Clint Barton.

Natasha hurried along the corridors, reaching the lab and finding a fight already in motion, between Stark, Rogers and Fury. She tried to talk sense into Banner, but he seemed too enraged to leave. His eyes weren't flashing green, as she'd been told they would, but that could mean anything.

She found herself pulled into the main fight, that Fury was making weapons with the Tessaract. She didn't care for it either, but she understood. They didn't seem to care, though it felt odd to her, as Banner seemed so agreeable before.

The instigators, oddly enough, were fighting about something else now. Stranger still was the fact that Stark seemed to have been the one attacked, by Rogers, not the other way around.

"You may not be the enemy but that doesn't make you a hero." Stark's face told her enough about that, and if she wasn't so focused on keeping Banner calm she would have cut in.

"Everything special about you came from a bottle." Perfect, just perfect. But she didn't have time to worry, because Banner had just picked up the staff and was glaring at her with the obvious intent to use it.

An alert sounded, breaking the tense silence that had taken the room when Banner looked down and realized what he held. She saw Stark smack his forehead softly, muttering under his breath.

"Oh my God…" An explosion knocked her and Banner out of the room before she could ask what had happened.

_XxX_

She could barely remember the next few minutes, despite efforts to do so. Banner had been trapped under rubble with her, and the team had gone to take care of whatever had attacked the HeliCarrier.

He'd Hulked out. She'd been promising to get him out of there, and he'd Hulked out, nearly killing her. She had no prayer of hurting him, not in that form, not on her injured ankle.

She'd run, down dark corridors until she'd trapped herself in panic and debris. He'd been about to smack her with enough force to break her into pieces when two things happened.

He'd paused, eyes sharpening in shock at her face.

And Thor had appeared and slammed him into another wall. She'd dragged herself away from the mess and tried to find some task to aid with or a corner to nurse her ankle.

_XxX_

"They're here. They called it.' No, not again, please no. She didn't think she could stand this. Coulson had been the one who got her and Barton out of the mess that was her life, he'd helped make her an agent, he was her _friend._

"This is Agent Romanov. I copy." Her legs were moving, running towards the location being fed to her in the comm. He hadn't retreated yet, they could at least get one good thing from this attack.

He was just as good as she remembered, and didn't pull his punches, grabbed her hair as she bit his arm.

"Nat…?" She slammed his head again, for good measure, before calling a medical team to bring him to his room.

She would not lose them both, not in the same day.

_XxX_

He woke, staring at her in shock. Natasha would bet that he didn't think he would even be back in his own mind.

"Do you know what it's like to be unmade?"

"How many agents-?" She couldn't answer that, couldn't tell him that Coulson had already gone down, trying to keep Loki from getting out. He'd even used one of those experimental weapons from the Destroyer, something Clint would have gotten a kick out of, knowing Coulson got to be the field officer he'd been famous as, before either of them arrived.

But she couldn't, could not tell him that Coulson was dead, gone, only a bloody stain on the wall. He couldn't take that, not yet, and neither could she. Fighting harder was one thing, but she didn't want him suicidal. It was greedy, but she needed his support.

It didn't help the bad taste in her mouth.

_XxX_

"Son, just don't." Despite everything, it almost made her laugh. Rogers had certainly impressed her, earned her respect, in that she'd earned his. He'd just looked, at her, Clint, back, and when she'd nodded, he'd accepted it and told them both to suit up. That was it, no questions, no mistrust. Stark hadn't commented either, eyeing Clint once before shrugging and taking off, suit scratched and sparking oddly from his tussle with the blades.

She wondered how well insulated the suit was to shocks, and then tried not to think about it. He was a genius; it was probably safe.

The plane took off smoothly; Clint was a very capable pilot, as was she, and Rogers didn't seem bothered by waiting.

He did seem so when he saw Stark flying through the air through the dash, suit catching him moments before he became a pancake.

"What, did you stop for take-out?" She rolled her eyes. No, there was no serious situation that he would not crack a joke at. The plane was attacked, not surprising, and they went down. Hard. A blurred form, also known as Thor, was flying towards the Tower.

"Is Banner there?" What? Rogers took over answering that, though his response was just as confused as she was.

Strange, crustacean alien forms were clambering down the walls and flying from the sky, attacking anything they saw, alive or no. They all leapt into action, no commands needed, and she found herself back to back with Clint at times, others where they were rescuing bystanders. Normal, really.

"This is like Budapest all over again." Clint shook his head, watching the sky.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently."

Banner arrived, on a borrowed scooter of all things, and shook his head, looking around. Natasha got a good view of what his strength could do, when Stark finally arrived, being chased by a whale-ship covered in more of the smaller foot soldiers. Banner had simply smashed it in the face, causing it to implode.

Rogers showed exactly why he was a Captain, sending them off to different areas to do what they could to defend the city. Stark flew Clint to a balcony to shoot from, she stayed with Captain Rogers, and Hulk went on a smashing mission with Thor.

All was going, not well, but alright, when she arrived on the roof where the portal device was located. Where Eric Selvig came to and realized there was a way to close it.

Then the nuke was launched, and Tony, the goddamned, overly courageous moron, flew it beyond the edge of the world, and she closed the door behind him.

He fell through, as the aliens fell dead around them, tumbling through the air. Hulk came out of nowhere, caught him, and they tumbled to the ground. She couldn't see from the top of the building, but Stark's voice could be heard faintly over the comm Captain Rogers wore, and that was enough.

_Team shows that they can work together when the situation demands it. Skills are varied enough to allow several members to work together in various areas of combat without leaving other areas open for attack. All members displayed ability to get beyond personal differences to complete mission._

_Thor is unlikely to become a permanent member of the team. He showed ease in both aerial attack and hand-to-hand combat, and worked well with the Hulk, despite earlier fight._

_Captain Rogers took command well and without issue with other members. He has excellent hand-to-hand combat skills, as well as mid- to long-range attack using his shield. Used this to his advantage with Iron man._

_Iron Man has excellent aerial combat skills, as well as hand-to-hand combat using repulsors and basic fighting technique. Despite misgivings, he worked well with the team, taking advice and commands from other members. Should be noted that he takes too many risks._

_The Hulk showed remarkable ability to take orders, though simple, and to work on a team. While he showed some aggression towards Thor due to the earlier fight, he managed to work well during the battle itself._

_Agent Barton joined the team, using his hand-to-hand combat skills as well as long range sniper abilities. He managed well with all members of the team he had contact with._

_XxX_

Thor took Loki in chains back to Asgard, using the portal one last time and taking the Tessaract with him. Good. As useful as it could be, she didn't know a single human she trusted with it. Maybe, in a pinch, Stark, but not really. He might not build weapons anymore, but he'd made the best. That much power was hard to resist.

They said their goodbyes, she watched in amusement when Banner got into Stark's car, leaving for what was left of the Tower, she supposed. They seemed to get along well, both intelligent to keep up with the other.

Rogers was leaving, going off on an adventure or something on that motorcycle of his. She was fairly sure it had been kept in SHIELD storage.

Clint looked a bit uncomfortable, not that anyone else would have been able to tell. When the others had all left, though, his shoulders drooped, and he just looked tired. He was still recovering from Loki's spell, and had been informed of Coulson's situation a few hours before. She was sure he hadn't been able to sleep either.

Fury was a bastard, she'd always known, but this went over the thin line in her mind. Natasha decided not to bother keeping Clint from exacting revenge on SHIELD. Petty revenge, but worth it.

_Conclusion: The Avengers Initiative, despite a shaky start, is well-off and likely to succeed as a team, with a little work._


	3. Chapter 3

He didn't get the news from Heimdall until Loki had already been caught by the Midgardians, ones whose names he did not know. The bridge had been repaired to a point, though it was still dangerous to travel on, and could only go one way. To get home, Heimdall warned him as he'd pulled his armor on and run for the bridge, he would have to collect the Tessaract, and bring it home.

"It looks similar to the Casket of Ancient Winters, but smaller, and not of Asgard nor of Jotenheim." He was handed a strange container, with a handle on either side.

"Place it within this; it will have enough power to take you and Loki back here. Be warned; he will likely not be your brother any more. The space which the Bifrost dropped him in is full of mystery, and the Chitari are not kind. If it is as I believe and he is amassing an army from them, there is no telling what he went through from their ministrations. Reasoning will get you nowhere, Thor, remember this." Heimdall looked closely into his eyes, trying to judge if he had listened. Thor tried to look convincing, but he knew that if he got Loki alone, or even close to him, he'd break, begging him to stop this madness, this killing, and come home.

Heimdall either didn't see it, or else gave him up as a lost cause, because he nodded and gestured towards the remnants of the bridge.

"Stand in the center. It will drop you where you entered last. Loki is currently in the custody of SHIELD, on their way to their base in the sky. If you hurry, you may reach them before they get to this base. If not, your father has given permission for you to join the Midgardians in their fight against him. Remember, your initial goal is to get Loki home, and the Tessaract as well. Prevention of more loss of life is important, but remember your mission." Thor nodded, though inwardly, he scowled. Stopping any more death ought to be the first priority, he thought. And for him, it would be. But he said nothing, and walked forward onto the platform, before being whisked away into nothing.

_XxX_

The sky darkened with his lightening and thunder as he flew, reflecting his mood and lack of control at the moment. The flying device (jet, a voice that sounded like Jane told him) was cruising along faster than he could easily keep up. Thankfully, it was headed towards him. At just the right moment, he let himself drop onto its' roof, which clanged loudly.

He could sense Loki's magic inside, though it felt… weak, corrupt. There was no trace of other magic. He did not have the Tessaract.

Then where was it?

He panicked, just a bit, and dove for the door as it opened, shoved a shiny metal man out of the way, grabbed Loki and dove out, flying quickly for the ground.

He couldn't control his descent, and they both slammed down with a crunch into hard rock and gravel. Thor stood quickly, and stared down at Loki. Even in the dim light, he looked sick, and like he hadn't bathed in months. He likely hadn't, as he'd been either in space or Chitari custody since the fall.

"Where is the Tessaract?" He barked it out, angry and scared, and watched as Loki groaned, eyes opening back up. They were a sickly blue, the color of the magic of the Chitari.

"I missed you too." Loki stood, tall and in some new garb, not his armor any longer but some foreign work. It looked wrong on him, but Loki looked wrong himself.

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" It was an old joke, something he'd said once after they'd fought and Loki had made some wisecrack that had made his blood boil. Last time, Loki had said yes, and conjured up a board game. It went over his head.

"You come home!" He realized he was doing just what he shouldn't, trying to reason with Loki. His strange blue eyes stared back, unmoved.

"I've sent it off, I know not where." He was snide, more than ever before, and looked unbothered by Thor's anger. All Thor wanted was for this to never have happened, to be back at his birthday, to fix this before Loki had become so damaged.

"Now you listen brother-" He felt a large weight slam into him, knocking him off of the mountain he'd landed on into the trees.

He disentangled himself and found himself staring at the metal man, who lifted his helmet, revealing a human face underneath. The man looked annoyed, tired, tense. He likely was one of those that had hunted down Loki to begin with.

"Then don't touch my stuff." He sounded almost like Loki; full of snark.

"Tourist." While the name meant little, the tone was derisive, and he felt himself enraged, beyond what he normally felt. Without a pause he hurled Mjolnir towards the figure as he made to… what, fly away? Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered that that could have easily killed the man, if his armor wasn't tougher than its' almost delicate appearance implied. As it was, he found himself in an evenly matched fight with the man, who had pulled his face plate back down again, leaving him an expressionless drone instead of human.

He even hit the man with lightening, but it had no effect. If anything, the next blast of blue from his palms was more powerful. It must run on some kind of energy similar to his lightening. Wasn't that the norm of Midgard, or did he remember wrong?

His mind felt unfocused, both fully intent on utterly obliterating the man who had insulted him and entirely detached from the fight.

He felt far more focused when something slammed into his head, bounced off of the metal man, and flew back to another man standing a few feet away.

"That's enough!" He wore a mask, which covered the top half of his face, and the object he'd thrown was a shield, with a star in the center.

"Why don't you put down the hammer?" He felt rage enter him again, strong and out of control. The metal man yelled out that it was a bad idea to say so, and Thor slammed his arm into his abdomen, knocking him away, before leaping towards the other man, Mjolnir raised.

He slammed it down, straight onto the shield barely raised in time to defend its' owner. The blast knocked him backwards, and he could feel the deaths of the trees around them as the shockwave created spread from the shield. The metal used in it was something strange, indeed.

He could feel his head clear as he stood, joining the other two in the center of destruction.

"Are we done?" The shield man looked at them both in annoyance, more so directed at the metal man, though Thor couldn't imagine why. Perhaps he wasn't supposed to fly after him, or they'd been fighting before he'd arrived.

He was directed towards the jet, and carried Loki back up. The shield man had apparently tied his wrists before chasing after them, and Loki had made no move to remove them, nor to escape by other means. This was worrisome.

The jet had circled around their area until they came up, him with Loki, the metal man with the shield man. When they were all inside, however, the metal man hopped back out the hatch before it closed.

"I'll see you all at the magnificent Carrier in the Sky. Lovely to meet you, Thor, Captain. And Widow, smashing to see you again." The voice came from the front, a small box near the pilot, who rolled her eyes at the man.

Thor sat down, Mjolnir still clipped to his belt (for safety, he didn't want to break the jet), and watched as the shield man, perhaps the captain, stood near the door, watching them both. Thor glanced at Loki, who was seated near the front, where he could hear none of them, before speaking.

"I apologize for my behavior. I was not thinking things through, and was focused on getting my brother before he could do more harm." The other man looked at him.

"Right. We want the same thing, you must understand. So for now, we might as well work together, to find the Cu- the Tessaract and stop whatever that portal would let through." Thor nodded, pleased that he had not made an enemy of this man. He seemed like he was in charge.

"I am Thor, of Asgard. I believe you were called Captain?" The man grimaced a bit.

"Steve Rogers. But yeah, I'd be the Captain; Captain America, though thankfully, most people call me Captain Rogers now."

"Captain America? America is the country, correct? Are you its' leader?" He shook his head, quickly, as though it was a ridiculous idea.

"Yes, it is the country, but no, I'm not the leader. I'm- not much of anything, really. I was asleep for a long time. About seventy years. When I went down, we were in a different war. They say we won. Now, we're in another one, and I don't even know what we're fighting." He sighed, looking worn, before straightening up.

"But you don't need to be burdened by all that. Suffice to say, I was a symbol for our country, something to look up to. Whether I lived up to that or not, well, that isn't up to me. My goal is just to help out, not be the leader." Thor nodded, before settling back against the seat, wondering what a 'Carrier in the sky' was.

_XxX_

They were all in the meeting room, waiting for the man of Iron to appear. He was informed by the woman pilot (Agent Romanov) that his name was Tony Stark, and that would be better off ignoring the man. Another man, an intellectual called Bruce Banner, was also in the room with them. The others were SHIELD agents; Agent Hill and Director Fury.

Banner spoke what Thor knew they all were thinking; Loki was crazy.

"His brain's a bag of cats; you can smell the crazy on him." He knew it was true; Loki had been lost, to some power of the Chitari. But he could not let this go un-addressed.

"He is still my brother." Despite everything, he would not let Loki go, even if it took another millennia for him to be truly Loki again.

"He killed thirty people in two days." Agent Romanov looked bleak. Thor realized that many of those people had been agents; she could easily have known some of the dead.

"He's adopted." It sounded dismissive, or defensive; like he was trying to move away from being associated with Loki. He didn't mean it like that; Loki's anger and pain, at being a race most of Asgard hated, had been part of what pushed him to take over. His resentment at being treated like a potential heir, only for even the opportunity to be taken away entirely because of his birth; all had been parts of it. He didn't know what he really meant by his comment; was he using it as justification for Loki? An excuse? An explanation?

Nobody commented on what he had said. They had begun discussing what the stolen materials could be used for. Banner seemed to be the expert on this; he mentioned that another was Eric Selvig.

"He's working with Loki."

"He's a friend." Jane and Darcy had been moved to a safer location; he'd assumed that Eric was with them. He'd apparently been brainwashed by the strange magic Loki now possessed. He and another two agents for SHIELD.

As Banner talked, Thor realized he could hear a quiet conversation from the hallway leading to the deck they were sitting on. He glanced behind him, just as Tony Stark and Agent Coulson walked in. Despite being in conversation with themselves, Stark easily joined Banner in conversation in an offhand comment, before offering to fly Agent Coulson somewhere to 'keep the love alive.'

He proceeded to pat Thor on the shoulder, saying something about a mean swing, before walking towards the edge of the deck, calling out a few things and generally acting ridiculous. Thor wondered if this man always spent his time joking instead of taking the situation seriously.

He talked well, however; he and Dr. Banner seemed to be the only ones who knew what was going on, regarding the Tessaract. Thor could understand having strange ways of dealing with the stress of an impending battle; he had dealt with warriors with all manner of habits to unwind from a long war. As long as this Stark could keep on task, he would not interfere with his methods of calming his nerves for battle.

_XxX_

Fury wanted to know if he could torture his brother, if he could even stand to the side and watch it occur, if they needed to do it. Thor could admit to himself, though perhaps not out loud, that he could not; Loki was his brother. They'd played together as children, for Odin's sake! How his playmate had become what he was went over Thor's head, but he couldn't just forget their past, despite what everyone else seemed to expect of him.

SHIELD sent Agent Romanov in instead. He was informed she could charm the answers out of Loki; Thor had his doubts. Loki was not called Silver-tongued for nothing, and he had had much more time to hone his techniques.

However, Fury got a call from her on the small headset that everyone wore; Loki planned on releasing the Hulk on the Helicarrier. Such an event would potentially kill everyone on board, as well as release Loki back into his minions hands. He went with the other two to the lab where Stark and Banner were working, strange screens filled with data Thor was sure he would never understand.

Captain Rogers came inside, hefting a weapon onto the table. Stark began to get angry, talking loudly about a nuclear deterrent and its' lack of effect. Fury turned back at Thor.

"Because of him!" Thor startled. He was trying to follow both arguments; Agent Romanov was trying to remove Dr. Banner from the room. It was not working well.

"Your experiments on the Tessaract signaled to other planets that Earth was ready for a higher level of war!" How could these humans be so _blind_? Their weakness was the main reason they had not been taken over in the last several millennia; the Chitari wouldn't be coming if the Tessaract wasn't sending signals all over the galaxy!

Stark and Rogers were fighting now; Thor could hear it no longer focused on weapons, but Stark and his lack of heroic traits. The Captain personified honor, it seemed, but Stark wasn't what Rogers saw as praise-worthy. Thor winced a bit at the fight.

"You mortals are so petty. And tiny." What was making them like this? He had changed because of the humans capacity for feeling, even for strangers. Now, they seemed worse than he had been before.

"You want to know my secret? You want to now why I'm so calm?" Banner was holding the scepter, his eyes beginning to glow an eerie blue.

"You want to put down that scepter, Dr. Banner?" Fury held his hands up in surrender. Thor watched the others. Stark didn't look all that scared of Banner losing control, but he was the only one.

The room was still, almost frozen, watching as Banner turned to look at the weapon in his hand.

Something beeped loudly from the other end of the room. Dr. Banner dropped the scepter quickly and walked over, muttering something about a magic trick.

"Oh my God." The ship was rocked with an explosion. Thor felt himself be blasted backwards, landing heavily on the ground.

_XxX_

There was a sound of heavy metal being smashed and glass shattering. Thor ran that way, realizing that Banner and Agent Romanov had been that way. Banner, from the sound of it, was the Hulk.

He got close, and saw the Hulk for the first time. He was large, green, and… about to kill Agent Romanov. Without thinking, Thor leaped, throwing Hulk to the side, hopefully allowing Agent Romanov to run.

Thor knew that the Hulk was beyond reason; Fury had warned him of this, when briefing the team on the Hulk. But once again, he couldn't help it.

"We are not your enemies!"

He discovered that the Hulk could not lift Mjolnir. Everything else, though, was fair game.

Fury sent a distraction to get the Hulk away. The distraction, thankfully, lived. Thor ran for Loki's cage, wondering what would be able to keep his brother in it. For that matter, should his magic not have let him out already? Mortals did not account for magic.

Loki was emerging from the door as he ran through. Thor dove at him.

He tumbled through the empty doorway, the door slamming shut behind him.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" Loki was smirking, standing by the control panel.

"You know, the mortals think us indestructible. Let's find out, shall we?" The floor beneath the cage opened up, revealing the vast distance to the ground.

Thor stared out of the glass, staring at his brother. Loki… he didn't seem at all like his brother anymore. Corrupted, evil, barely a hint of the old mischief. It was gone and replaced with malice. Blue eyes like ice, and Thor had to wonder if they were a Jotun trait, or like Banner's touch of the scepter earlier.

A man walked in, holding a gun almost as large as he was. It was Agent Coulson, somehow looking unbothered even by staring down a god while his ship tumbled out of the sky.

Loki stabbed him through the back, the point of the blade coming out of the front of his suit. Thor felt frozen, unable to even yell, staring at Coulson, who slumped down, still holding the gun and staring at him through the wall.

Thor fell from the sky, glass shattering and dirt flying while he crashed to the ground.

_XxX_

He flew, faster than he had ever thought possible, or safe, as above him, he could see the Portal opening, the Chitari spilling out like ants from a hill, more than he thought they could destroy, though he only knew how strong the Hulk was first hand. And nobody knew where he was, if the earpiece they'd given him was speaking true. He almost wished it wasn't; Fury had called Coulson's death while he had fallen.

Loki stood on the tallest building, where the Portal rose to the sky. Thor flew to him, hoping, this last time, he could get to him, make him recognizable once again as Loki Odinson, in name if not blood. Thor didn't know why his father had not told them before the coronation, hadn't let Loki know that he could never hold the Throne, but Odin had loved him. In the same why as with Thor, even if Loki could no longer see it.

He left this last meeting with a knife in his side, a gift from their mother, and focused on the Chitari. Thor could no longer worry about Loki; Earth was in danger, and mostly helpless. He landed alongside the Captain, Agent Romanov, and a man he recognized as the Agent that Loki had brainwashed. He seemed to have a clear head, and the others trusted him.

A strange wheeled device drove up, with Dr. Banner riding it, in different clothing than before.

"Banner just got here. Like you said." The Captain sounded surprised, but it seemed that he and the Man of Iron had settled their differences.

"I'm bringing the party to you." Stark, in his red and gold armor, flew around the corner, followed by the whale-like beast that carried the Chitari to the city.

"I don't see how that's a party," Agent Romanov commented behind him, as Dr. Banner walked forward.

"This would be a good time to get angry."

"That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry." The transformation to the Hulk was fluid, quick, and the fist to the face of the whale caused it to collapse into itself, falling to the ground in a pile.

The Captain began to give orders, and seemed comfortable in charge. Thor had no problems listening, and if what he had been told about this man was true, they were in good hands. Stark took the newcomer, Agent Barton, it seemed, and flew him to a vantage point where his bow would be useful.

The battle was long and hard. He wouldn't deny that he was exhausted (and bruised from when Hulk punched him into a wall), but they were holding their own. Captain Rogers received a message that Agent Romanov had a way to close the Portal.

"Wait!" Thor looked wildly into the sky, and saw Stark, a strange weapon on his back, flying straight towards the Portal. He disappeared, and Captain Rogers gave the order to close it. Silently, they all stood and watched as the hole began to close, while the Chitari fell as their ship was destroyed.

Stark fell through, only a moment away from being trapped on the other side.

"He is not slowing down." Thor began to swing Mjolnir, but Hulk leapt up before he could get enough speed. They tumbled to the ground, and Thor ran forward, ripping the face plate off of Stark. His face was still, eyes closed. Captain Rogers leaned forward to look. The light on the suit was dull; Thor remembered hearing that the light was what ran the suit, but also kept Stark alive. He couldn't imagine fighting with his weakness openly displayed on his chest.

Hulk roared, perhaps in pain, or desperation, but it had an unexpected effect; Stark jumped, as though jolted by electricity. He opened his eyes in shock, suit lighting up again.

"What happened?" He sounded confused; he'd expected to die, lost in space without a prayer of recovery.

"We won." Captain Rogers sounded shell shocked, and relieved.

_XxX_

The meal they ate after the battle was interesting, and good. The others were quiet, eating and cooling down from the long battle. Thor found himself examining each of them, checking for over exhaustion.

Captain Rogers was eating a large amount of food, opposite hand clenching and releasing its' grip as he stretched his injured side. He was quiet, watching the others. Possibly for injuries, or just to affirm that they had survived.

Agents Romanov and Barton were partially sharing a chair, sitting close to each other. Neither looked at the other.

Dr. Banner and Stark sat silently as well. Dr. Banner was eating even more than Captain Rogers, likely because of his transformation, and even took food off of Stark's plate when his own was empty. Stark didn't seem to mind.

His mind drifted to Loki, who was held in Asgardian chains, unconscious and alone in SHIELD. Well, guarded, not alone. His eyes were no longer blue, but it was too late for redemption now, was it not? After the invasion, could he ever be forgiven?

When Thor took Loki and himself back to Asgard, he had to wonder if Loki had felt it was worth it, for a chance at ruling Earth, ruining his chances of going home peacefully. He sighed, and began the walk from the bridge to the palace. The guards were waiting at the door.


	4. Chapter 4

The nightmares hadn't stopped, and Steve didn't think they would anytime soon. After all he'd been through, he figured he was lucky to make it through the day without hallucinating their faces.

He couldn't feel the bag under his hands; all he could see was the ice, the bombs, the guns, and Red Skull grinning at him.

The bag went flying.

"Trouble sleeping?" Steve looked up, to see Director Fury standing in the doorway watching him.

"I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill." He'd grown to like the man well enough, although their method of breaking the news to him still grated. Did they think him stupid?

"Got a mission for me, sir?" He didn't want a mission. He didn't know what he wanted, but another bout of fighting for his country, when he didn't even know what his country was anymore, was definitely not it. Fury handed him a file. Inside was information on the Tessaract. He'd known it by another name, but he recognized it.

"Hydra's secret weapon." Looked like he didn't get a choice; that thing was his responsibility, whether he liked it or not.

"Is there anything about the Tessaract you should tell us now?"

"You should have left it in the ocean." Howard had known the damage it could do. Apparently, he, or SHIELD, had decided that its' power was worth the risk. Power does corrupt, after all.

_XxX_

"So this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum used on me?" The video screen, whatever the name of the device was, showed a large green man, trashing what appeared to be the city.

"A lot of people were," an agent explained. His name was Coulson, apparently. Director Fury had sent him to accompany Steve to their base. Why he couldn't have done it himself, Steve didn't bother wondering. The boss didn't do small jobs.

Agent Coulson continued, and Steve realized in amusement that the man was an embarrassed fan.

"I hope I'm the man for the job." He didn't feel ready; he still had trouble remembering the name of his mobile telephone. (Cell phone, but it said Stark Industries on the back. Why did Howard start making cell phones?)

"Oh, you are. Absolutely." At least someone had that faith.

_XxX_

"Trading cards?" They'd made trading cards of him? Why? Why not the ones that actually died in the war, instead of the face of it? He shook his head minutely. Coulson had the full set apparently.

"They're vintage. He's very proud." Agent Romanov, a red haired agent that Agent Coulson had left him with, led him towards another jet, where a timid looking man stood, watching the agents warily.

"Dr. Banner?" He held out a hand, which was met, with a surprisingly strong grip.

"Word is you can find the Cube." Dr. Banner nodded absently, as though being able to find the Tessaract wasn't that big a deal. Perhaps to him, it wasn't. Neither Agent Coulson now Agent Romanov had mentioned why Dr. Banner had agreed to come out of hiding to help. From his file, he certainly had no reason, besides stopping the end of the world.

"It's the only word I care about." Whatever had happened to him in that lab, he was here now, to help out. He couldn't very well judge the man when he'd done the same thing, with more success.

"I suppose this is all strange to you." Steve laughed a bit. People running around, with set duties and strict guidelines? No, that was all perfectly familiar.

Agent Romanov warned them to get inside.

"Is this thing a submarine?" Dr. Banner walked with him to the edge of the platform to look into the water.

"Really? They want me in a submerged pressurized container?" Something was rising out of the water. After a moment, Steve could see they were… some kind of turbine?

"Oh no, this is much worse." Dr. Banner looked stressed, though Steve got the impression he always did, or maybe just around the military. They were led inside.

_XxX_

Steve handed Director Fury a five as they walked into the Helicarrier, watching through the windows as they rose into the sky. It was amazing. Maybe he did need to get more into the future, if it could offer things like this.

_XxX_

SHIELD had used some kind of facial recognition software that reached every camera in the world, or something similar. Steve wouldn't pretend to understand, but apparently it had found him at a gala of some kind in Germany. It was always Germany, wasn't it? Agent Romanov was flying them in.

The new uniform fit like a glove, and was a close match to what he used to wear. It was thicker material, though. He couldn't tell exactly what it was, though it felt similar to leather.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing." This man was odder tha Hitler, sure. Armor, horned helmet and glowing blue scepter certainly didn't match to the mustache and suit. But the ideals were the same, in the end. People hadn't changed, even if the world had.

"Kneel!" He was fast, faster than Steve had anticipated. Not fast enough.

"Not today!" As they fought, Steve frowned. Loki was strong, and that scepter was sharp. Yet he wasn't using either to his advantage. It worried him.

Music blared, from the speakers of the jet they'd flown in, and a loud crash from behind him announced the arrival of another agent.

"Make a move, Reindeer Games." A figure covered in metal walked forward. Loki's hands went up. Steve greeted Mr. Stark as he joined him. He'd been briefed on him as well; ex-weapons manufacturer and creator of the most advanced battle suit in existence. Iron Man.

_XxX_

They both stood in the back of the jet, while Loki was strapped in a seat in the middle and Agent Romanov flew. Steve observed the other man, who had removed his helmet, revealing a trimmed goatee and a grinning face. He didn't seem capable of taking anything seriously.

He glanced back to Loki, who sat quietly, making no move towards a weapon or escape, despite apparently being able to teleport.

"I don't like it." Stark turned to look at him.

"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" He sounded unbothered by the situation. Steve felt his (metaphorical) hackles rise, but refused to react. He'd dealt with people he didn't care for before, this was no different.

"Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow." What was Stark going on about now? He was still going on, called him a 'Capsickle.'

"Fury didn't mention he was calling you in." For some reason, this caused Stark to turn away, an odd expression on his face. It was only for a moment, however.

"Yeah. There's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you." They both stood silently for a moment, until thunder rumbled from around them. Loki, Steve noticed, seemed nervous.

"Scared of a little lightening?" Loki spared him a glance, before looking back towards the roof of the jet.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows." Steve glanced at Stark, who looked confused, before there was a loud clang of something hitting the jet.

The doors were yanked open, and a man in armor carrying… was that a _war hammer?_ What? He ran in, yanked Loki out of his seat, and jumped out, carrying him by his shirt.

"Then there's this guy…" Stark grabbed his helmet.

"Another Asgardian?" Agent Romanov sounded as confused as Steve felt, which was a relief. He hated not knowing what was going on.

"Think this guys a friendly?" Stark was walking towards the open doors.

"Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tessaract's lost." He pulled the helmet on, and Steve watched, fascinated, as it closed automatically, attaching to the armor.

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!"

"I have a plan. Attack." With that, he jumped. Blue light flared out of cloud as he dropped from view. Steve scowled, reaching for the parachutes.

"I'd sit this one out, Cap." Agent Romanov was fiddling with the controls, trying to level the jet out again. Steve scoffed. He was not leaving Stark to deal with two of them. Or he didn't trust Stark to do the job properly, having no apparent tactical experience. Or both.

"They're basically gods."

"There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." What kind of world had the future become, that they believed in gods like these? Some part of him recognized that that wasn't what she meant, but his mind seemed to find fault in everything the future had to offer lately.

_XxX_

He fell slowly, giving him time to think. Steve realized that he was far more irritable than he had any reason to be; Stark was obnoxious, but he was finding that many people were, and that had always been true. So why was he reacting like this?

Must be the added stress of a mission and the fact that he was out of time, despite his flippant remark to Loki to the contrary. He felt better at the moment, at least.

Steve could see Stark and the other man were destroying the forest as they tried to take each other down. Stark's armor was powerful, as was the hammer; the trees didn't stand a chance.

He landed, managed to get the parachute off with minimal problems, and ran for the battle, throwing his shield as he reached them. It bounced off of the other man's head, then Stark, before rebounding back to him.

"That's enough!" They both looked at him. He could see no expression on either of them.

"Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here…" The other man interrupted him, scowling now. Steve abruptly hoped that Agent Romanov was going to get Loki, because he had his hands full.

"I've come to put an end to Loki's schemes!"

"Then prove it! Put the hammer down." Stark began to say something about the hammer in protest, before being knocked aside.

"You want me to put the hammer down?!" The man leapt at him, hammer raised. Steve barely got the shield up in time. The resulting explosion (what was that hammer made of?) caused destruction for yards.

Stark and the man got up, standing near him.

"Are we done?" The other man looked sheepish. Stark's helmet held no expression, but his body language spoke of being distracted, not ashamed of acting like a schoolboy.

"I apologize for my actions. I should have informed you of my intentions instead of interfering with them. I an Thor, Prince of Asgard. Loki is my brother." Thor, apparently, latched the hammer onto his belt, and walked forward, hand out.

"Captain Rogers. Good to meet you, Prince Thor. I hope you can help us out on this." Thor's name had appeared in some of the files he'd been set to read. He shook his hand, and felt some hair stand on end from the electricity in this guy.

"Agent Romanov has Loki, and has the jet waiting above us. You want a ride up, Captain?" Steve nodded. He had to accept, as he had no way back up to the jet alone. Thor looked at him with slight confusion.

"Metal Man, you have not deigned to introduce yourself to the good captain and myself. Tell us your name!" Stark looked at him.

"Tony Stark. Iron Man in this armor. Can we wait until we get to the Helicarrier before we break out the name games?" Without waiting for a response, he walked forward, taking hold of Steve by his waist and jetting upwards. Below them, he could hear Thor trying to catch up, however he flew.

They landed on the jet again. Loki was in his seat, Agent Romanov in the pilots seat once again.

"You boys done?" Stark had removed his helmet again, and grinned at her.

"Naturally. Want to take these guys back? I need to be elsewhere for a few minutes." She nodded, not even looking back, and Stark jumped out of the open doors just as Thor arrived again.

Steve glared at the empty space, but didn't comment.

_XxX_

"Loki is going to drag this out. Thor, what's his play?" They sat in a council room in the Helicarrier, watching Loki's interrogation. Thor frowned, his arms folded. Even out of armor, he looked dangerous. Steve was abruptly grateful that the fight hadn't escalated; with the hammer taken into account, Steve wouldn't be placing bets on the victor.

Thor began to explain the Chitari, an alien species of unknown origin.

"An army. From outer space." Sometimes Steve wondered if he was still asleep, or dead somewhere, and dreaming himself into a comic book.

The scientist that Loki had taken from the facility was apparently a friend of Thor's from his first visit to Earth. Definitely personal, taking him.

Dr. Banner was asking about the material stolen when Loki had been captured. Iridium.

"It's a stabilizing agent." They looked up, to see Stark and Agent Coulson walking in. Stark whispered something about a flight to Agent Coulson, before continuing speaking.

"Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." He paused, hit Thor lightly on the shoulder, before walking forward again. Thor looked confused once again by his behavior. Steve set his teeth while Stark and Dr. Banner discussed the portal. He had no real idea of what was going on in the discussion, only that Stark stopped to yell something about monitors and mention a man playing Galaga. Steve looked up, trying to see what he was talking about, but with no actual idea what Galaga was, couldn't tell if he saw anything or not.

"Finally, someone who speaks English!"

"Is that what that was?" He could almost relate to that, but lost that feeling when Stark began to speak again.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Dr. Banner looked a bit bewildered by the comment, but thankfully didn't seem annoyed. Steve didn't care for how Stark was treating everything like a game.

The scepter came into discussion, as did its' mind controlling properties.

"I want to know how it turned two of the sharpest men I know into Loki's personal flying monkeys."

Steve couldn't help it; he exclaimed happily, "I understood that reference!" It was the first time since he'd woken up to actually be part of the cultural joke. From Fury's face, his reaction was unexpected.

Well, they pulled him straight from the ocean to sixty years in the future, in the middle of a war that seemed straight out of a sci-fi novel. What did they expect, that he'd be perfectly adjusted to everything immediately?

_XxX_

The lab that Stark and Dr. Banner had retreated to had all glass windows for the walls. So long before he entered, he saw Stark approaching with some stick. As he walked in, Stark jabbed it at Dr. Banner, and watched closely for a reaction.

"Nothing?"

"Are you nuts?" Stark barely spared him a glance, still watching for some sign he'd broken through Dr. Banner's rather remarkable control.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Stark finally turned to look at him, unperturbed.

"Funny things are." The man acted like a child. He'd been told that Tony Stark was a certified genius, but he'd only seen a few glimpses of it, buried below enough immaturity to make an elementary school look like a military base. The man was arrogant. Steve hated arrogance.

"You need to focus on the problem, Stark." Finally, he had the man looking at him without a joke or a grin. Instead, he looked annoyed, and… was that worry?

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" He actually liked Fury, he was the one who was trying to get him into the world. He liked most of the agents well enough, to be honest. They had the military attitude he was used to.

"Captain. He's a spy. He's _the _Spy. His secrets have secrets." From… somewhere, Stark pulled a bag of blueberries, eating them as he gestured towards Dr. Banner.

"It's bugging him too, isn't it?" Dr. Banner abruptly looked nervous to be the center of attention.

"Um… I just want to finish my work here and…" Steve narrowed his eyes. Was there something to what Stark was implying?

"Dr. Banner?" He sighed, before looking up at them both.

"'A warm light for all humanity to share.' Loki's jab at Fury." Steve nodded, unsure of where this was going. Dr. Banner gestured back at Stark.

"Well, I think that was meant for you." They were talking about energy now.

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly…" he paused momentarily, realizing that he was essentially insulting the man in front of him. But he had to finish. "… building in New York?" Stark didn't look all that bothered by the insult, though there was something in the back of his eyes that made Steve wonder.

"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Stark looked pleased that Dr. Banner knew this.

"Well, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tessaract project? I mean, what are they doing in clean energy in the first place?" Steve felt rather uncomfortable. He was a military man, trained to trust his government, at least to the point that they had his best interests in mind, or at least the country's as a general consensus. Yet these two were talking of an open conspiracy of some sort. Then he tuned back in to Stark saying he was hacking all of SHIELD's files.

"I'm sorry, did you just say…?"

"Jarvis has been running since we hit the bridge. Soon I'll know all of SHIELD's dirty secrets. Blueberry?" He offered out the bag, a challenging look on his face.

"We have our orders." Steve scowled, annoyed. While he had no idea who Jarvis was, Stark was breaking into secret files on a hunch, instead of focusing on the issue actually in front of him; the alien invading army apparently being summoned while they stood there.

"Following orders isn't really my style."

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" He'd seen the footage captured of this man in action; all flair.

"Out of the people in this room, who is a) wearing a spangly outfit and b) not of use?" Steve didn't have a comeback to that. He knew perfectly well that until there were actual enemies to attack, he didn't have much use. He wasn't brilliant with science and computers, especially in this century. His skills were in strategy and combat, neither of which were possible yet. So he was useless at the moment, but it stung to have it pointed out.

"Just find the Cube." He stalked out, knowing that he'd lost the argument, which was reaffirmed when Stark spoke, just as the doors closed.

"That's the guy my dad couldn't shut up about?"

_XxX_

Steve would never admit to Tony Stark that his last barb had hit its mark. But it had. Howard Stark had been a colleague, maybe a friend, but not until he'd ignored his orders and gone in to save Hydra's prisoners. If Howard couldn't shut up about him, it certainly wasn't because he'd followed orders; it was because he got things done, without regard to th trouble he could be in later.

Dr. Banner had agreed that something was up with the situation, and while Stark's methods seemed incredibly wrong, Steve had to wonder.

So when there was nobody guarding the vault that held the remnants of the research on the Tessaract, he went inside. Wasn't that difficult; the doors weren't made for his level of strength. The serial number on the storage containers was the same as that of the files they'd been given.

Inside was proof that nobody learns from the past.

_XxX_

Steve walked back into the lab, where most of the 'team' was already standing. Stark's program was apparently working.

"What is Phase 2?" Steve walked forward, announcing his presence by setting the gun down heavily.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD used the Cube to make weapons. Sorry," he added sarcastically to Stark, "the computer was moving a little too slow for me." Fury raised his hands, looking at Steve.

"Rogers, we collected all the research on the Tessaract. This doesn't mean…" Stark turned the screen towards them, showing blueprints for even bigger weapons using the same energy.

"I'm sorry Nick, what were you lying?" Steve wants to scream in anger at how bad the world had gotten while he was asleep. He knew of the atom bomb, knew about Vietnam and Korea, but those were years ago, not today. He'd hoped that people had gotten better, not worse.

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit."

Agent Romanov entered then, and abruptly the room was too full and too loud, people yelling over each other. Fury began to yell at Thor, explaining the need for better weapons, while Thor pointed out that the experiments were what had called the Chitari to Earth in the first place.

"I'm sure if Stark still made weapons, he'd be in this neck deep." Steve frowned to himself. What had possessed him to say that?

"Wait, wait, hold on. When did this become about me?" Stark was glaring at him now.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" The man's arrogance had grated since he got here! Surely he realized that his behavior was obnoxious?

The room was full of arguing. Agent Romanov was trying to get Dr. Banner to leave the room.

"Why not let the guy blow off some steam?" Steve felt his anger mount.

"You know damn well why!" Stark seemed to be the embodiment of everything he didn't like about this century. Selfish, arrogant, too loud and fast and ignorant of any dangers. If the world depended on men like him, they were all doomed.

Stark turned to him, a challenge in his eyes.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." They had pulled away from the others, who were still talking about Dr. Banner.

"Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off and what are you?" Somewhere, in the part of his mind that wasn't glowing red, he noticed that the light in Stark's eyes darkened.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." He remarked flippantly, as though the response was well rehearsed and needed no further explanation.

Steve wasn't sure what he said next. He knew that it burned as it came out of his mouth, full of hatred and anger, something his tormentors would have likely been proud of, if the tone was what he thought it was.

"I think I'd just cut the wire."

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop acting like a hero." Stark seemed to finally snap, lashing out.

"What, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came from a bottle." Steve wanted to shrug. He knew that his abilities were an experiment, it was how he used them that made him a good person, which was why he had been chosen in the first place. Stark had all the power he needed, and none of the drive to do something good. He just used it for himself. Like everyone else Steve had met.

"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds." He never found out the insult behind Stark's eyes this time, because their attention was drawn to Dr. Banner, who was getting angrier by the moment and backing away from Agent Romanov and Director Fury quickly, towards the scepter.

"You want to know my secret, Agent Romanov? You want to know how I'm so calm?" Steve walked forward a step, arms up.

"Dr Banner, please put down the scepter." He looked behind himself surprised to see what he was holding. The computer let out a noise behind all of them.

"I can get there faster." Stark spoke up, watching Dr Banner. Steve began to answer him, annoyed, when Dr Banner spoke again.

"Oh my God…" Then the world around them seemed to explode.

_XxX_

Steve hauled himself up, reaching towards Stark as well, who was struggling with the rocking Carrier to stand.

"Put on the suit." Stark wheezed something that might have been a laugh.

"Yup!" Together, they raced towards the door. As they ran, Steve noticed the rage he had been feeling faded, leaving confusion. What had been causing his intense anger? Stark may not be the epitome of a hero, but he was still here, and helping.

"You go to the damaged engine, I'll meet you there. It's the one to the left of the control room. Go!" Stark raced down a side hallway while Steve ran another direction, towards the damaged engine.

_XxX_

The ship was in chaos, and the area around the engine wasn't damaged so much as gone.

"I'm here!" Steve yelled into his ear piece. He often forgot he had one in, they were so small.

Stark flew in, his suit flashing in the sun. He got in close to the trashed machinery. He was speaking, talking about what they needed to do, but Steve just felt lost. He wasn't an engineer, especially for something like this.

"I need you to get to the engine's control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position." He pointed towards a panel above where Steve stood, before beginning to work his way into the engine itself, moving debris out of the way and tossing it below them. Steve worked his way towards the control panel, sliding it out of the wall. He almost groaned at the bizarre mesh of wires and switches.

"What's it look like?" Stark's voice came to him from the comm.

"It seems to run on some form of electricity!" Steve replied sarcastically, gesturing in annoyance. Stark chuckled, and began to explain what he needed to look for.

"Alright, the relays are intact. What's our next move?" Steve could hear other sounds from the ship, others on the comms, mostly gunfire and the Hulk roaring. He ignored it for now, focusing on the task at hand.

"I'm gonna have to get in there and give it a push."

"If that thing gets up to speed you'll get shredded!" Steve protested. What was he thinking?!

He began to babble something, but Steve wasn't in the mood to try and translate.

"Speak English!" There was a small sigh.

"You see that red lever? It'll slow the rotors long enough for me to get out. Go stand by it, wait for my word." Steve glanced over, and jumped to the lever.

This would be when they get attacked, he thought angrily to himself as he hung from a few wires out of the large hole in the ship.

"Cap, lever!"

"I need a minute here!" He hauled himself up, fighting off the last of Loki's soldiers, and reached the lever. In the engine, he could hear the clanking stop as Stark flew back in, looking rather dinged up but alive.

Then Steve realized what one of the announcements over the comm had been.

_XxX_

"It's an old-fashioned notion," Fury had said, and Steve knew, _knew _he was being manipulated, but couldn't bring himself to care. All he could see were those bloody cards, and the grin Agent Coulson had had when they'd flown to the Carrier.

He followed Stark to Loki's containment chamber. The hole was filled, but Thor was gone. There was no trace of anybody in this room except for some blood smeared on the wall.

"Was he married?" He didn't know what Stark was thinking, staring at the wall like that, and tried to think how he'd feel. Agent Coulson had been his main agent when working with SHIELD, they knew each other well.

"No. There was a… cellist, I believe." Stark began to walk around the room, not quite away from Steve, but not staying close, either.

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Stark rounded on him, glaring.

"We are _not _soldiers!" Steve remembered what he'd said, Stark not being worth ten of the men he'd worked with, and wondered about this reaction. Stark was talking still, and Steve could almost see thoughts racing through his eyes.

"Yeah. That's just previews, this is...this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tail diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered-" He paused, and at the same moment as Steve, realized what he had just said.

"Son of a bitch."

_XxX_

Steve entered the room Agent Romanov had said she was, announcing they needed to go. She looked up, surprised.

"Go where?" Steve glanced around the room, wondering why she was sitting in a SHIELD dorm.

"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?" A new voice answered, from the bathroom.

"I can." Agent Barton, the mind controlled man who had caused so much of the damage. Steve glanced at Natasha. She nodded, slowly but sure. She knew him better than Steve; if she said he was good, Steve would give the man the benefit of the doubt.

"You got a suit?" Agent Barton looked a bit surprised as well, clearly not expecting such an easy acceptance.

"Then suit up."

The three of them entered the hanger bay, and for the first time Steve could feel how this could be a team. He already knew that Stark was finishing some repairs, enough to let the suit fly him to the Tower. He had two people he trusted at his back, and it felt good to be in a situation he could handle again.

A pilot tried to stop them at the entrance.

"Son, just don't." The look of pure shock and awe at them was mollifying as he strapped himself into the jet, letting Agents Barton and Romanov take the controls.

_XxX_

The jet crashed. Understandable, considering the circumstances, and as he climbed out, Steve asked Stark if he was seeing it. The Chitari were strange, almost lobster-like, and carried guns of a kind. He didn't even want to think about the whale sized ones flying above him. They swarmed out of the portal like a reversed anthill someone had kicked.

"Seeing, still working on believing. Has Banner showed up yet?"

"Banner?" Why did he expect him to arrive? The man had the easiest out in the world to get away, and they didn't even know if he survived the fall.

"Just keep me posted!" Steve nodded, knowing that he wouldn't be seen, and directed the two SHIELD agents before heading to the police already gathered and began giving orders.

"Why the hell should I take orders from you?" Steve didn't get a chance to answer, from the chaos of two Chitari attacking. As he fought them off, he could hear the chief giving the orders he'd issued, and grinned to himself before readying himself for a long fight.

_XxX_

Thor had arrived, as had the Hulk, and Steve was as surprised as anyone that either of them had lived, and come back for more. By that, he meant not very. Both were heroes in their own right, and wouldn't desert them.

He directed each member of the team to where he thought they could do the most damage, and was pleased that nobody argued.

As the fight went on, he could hear Stark and Agent Barton exchanging information and banter easily, and was pleased that neither of them were having trouble working together. Most of the team worked well, but the fact remained that the Chitari were still coming. Agent Romanov agreed, and with a launch into the air, she was on her way to rectifying the problem.

She announced that she could close it, so much later he had begun to worry.

"DO it!"

"No, wait!" Stark's voice came over, sounding strained.

"Stark, these things are still coming!" He looked around wildly for Stark, trying to see what he was doing.

"I've got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute!" He could see him now, a missile on his back, flying towards the city.

"And I know just where to put it." Steve realized, heart pounding, just what that meant.

"Stark, you realize that's a one-way trip." He didn't answer, but as he flew into the portal, he really didn't have to. They stood still, watching him disappear, before Steve said, quietly, "Close it."

He'd lost another man, another soldier under his command. He really couldn't say he wasn't a hero, not seeing the evidence before him. He wanted, absurdly, to ask if Tony had been married, or if he was as devoted to his work as his father. Howard had never struck him as being able to be in a relationship, except to gears and circuits.

The portal began to collapse, as did the Chitari, while a large explosion could be seen through the void.

Just as the opening disappeared, a small figure fell through.

"Son of a gun!" He exclaimed, staring in shock at the now-familiar red figure falling towards Earth. Falling.

"He's not slowing down." Thor began to wind up, to go and catch Tony, but was beaten to the punch by the Hulk, who leapt out of nowhere and caught him, holding him carefully as he slid to the ground.

Steve and Thor got close, and Thor ripped away the helmet. Underneath, he looked asleep. The blue light on the front of the suit was off. Steve recalled something being said about it in the files, but couldn't remember what.

The Hulk roared, sounding pained. With a gasp, Tony's eyes shot open, suit whirring to life.

"What happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me." He looked at Steve for his answers. Steve looked to the sky. It was a clear day, and without the imminent alien invasion, it looked beautiful.

"We won."

_XxX_

The final good bye seemed anti climactic, in the end. Thor took Loki to Asgard, along with the Cube. If they were lucky, Steve thought, they'd never see it again. Tony and Bruce were going to rebuild Stark Tower together, along with Tony's CEO and girlfriend, Pepper Potts. Steve wasn't sure if Tony was a mind reader, but the grin on his face at introducing them made him wonder if he knew Steve's random thought in the end.

Natasha and Clint were apparently going back to SHIELD, after a vacation, though neither said where.

Steve, as he drove away, smiled to himself. This century was a strange one, to be sure, but he thought he could handle it. Plus, Tony had had his old bike, from somewhere. Things were looking up.


	5. Chapter 5

It was strange underwater. The light traveled differently, soft and not reaching very far into the depths. Tony didn't mind; it was rather peaceful in comparison to the chaos of his life lately. Between getting Stark Tower running, actually dating Pepper (instead of sleeping with someone, which he was far more used to), and keeping Iron Man updated, he was fairly sure he was sleeping less than after Afghanistan.

"You're good to go on this end. The rest is up to you." Stark Tower, despite his name on the front, was more Pepper's idea than his. Well, the building itself was hers. The technology was his. The idea, he supposed, could be seen as both, but neither was sure who, in a long night of brainstorming, who had actually said 'let's build an energy-efficient tower.'

"Stark Towers is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining energy." He wondered if his father had ever thought about the other uses of vibranium. Whatever he claimed, this had started with Howard Stark; his idea, his arc reactor, his hidden electron map of vibranium. All Tony had done was made it smaller.

Stark Tower lit up, glowing brightly against the dark sky. Pepper was speaking on the other end, asking what their brainchild looked like.

"Like Christmas, but with more… me." he grinned, knowing she was shaking her head at his narcissism. She wanted to put a good face on it, widen the public awareness campaign. She still was still the best secretary he'd ever had, and happier not to be CEO anymore. Still…

"Pepper, you're ruining the moment. Remember? Enjoy the moment." Never had he been more pleased with his design for the roof landing pad, as he could just walk forwards to where Pepper was waiting. The thing had been particularly tricky to calibrate so he could be moving, and he had to keep the same pace every time, but it was worth the ease of exit. He still remembered the first flight with the suit, and being stuck in it because of the slight dents in the armor.

"Sir, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line." JARVIS informed him as the helmet came off, leaving only the headset to communicate with.

"Tell him I'm not in. I'm actually out." JARVIS tried to convince him, but he could see Pepper now, wearing incredibly short shorts, and he scoffed.

"Close the line, JARVIS. I've got a date."

Pepper held one of his holo-screens, showing the new stats for the power output, and didn't look up as he approached.

"Power levels are holding steady… I think." Tony grinned at her.

"Of course they are, I was directly involved. Which brings me to my next question. How does it feel to be a genius?" She smirked at him, and he couldn't help but wonder exactly how he, of all people, had managed to gain her attention. He was flashy and rich, sure, but she was so _smart, _he wondered sometimes what she saw. Certainly not the money.

"I wouldn't really know, would I?" He knew she was kidding, but really, self-depreciation was his shtick, not really hers.

"All of this, came from you." He gestured all around them. The open top had also been an idea of hers, which he'd very much appreciated, considering how much he actually didn't like the closed office design. Whether it was his or hers was a topic they debated often.

"All of this, came from that." She tapped the arc reactor. He hid a wince, thinking of his earlier thoughts on it.

"Come on, give yourself at least… 12% of the credit." He wished that he knew how to stop his mouth sometimes.

"Twelve percent?" She didn't look overly upset, however, which was a sign she knew him well.

"An argument could be made for fifteen!" He held up his hands in mock surrender. They walked towards the table set up with a bottle of champagne. He wasn't sure if he wanted to drink it. It wasn't very high in alcohol content, was it? Only a glass couldn't be too bad…

Their banter was interrupted by JARVIS, who sounded stressed.

"Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my security protocols are being over-written." Coulson's voice came over the line. He needed to update JARVIS if SHIELD could hack him so easily. Unless JARVIS had just let him through…? Then JARVIS needed to be reprogrammed, or at least talked to.

"Stark, we need to talk." He picked up the phone unwillingly.

"Hello, you've reached the life-model decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message."

"This is urgent." He didn't sound amused, but Pepper laughed, which had been the point anyway.

"Then leave it urgently." Tony heard the elevator a moment before it got to the top, and glared at it while Pepper turned to look as well.

"Phil!" Pepper didn't sound angry, more excited at the other mans presence. Tony wondered if he was allowed to feel jealous, if he should. Normal interactions weren't his strong suit.

"His first name is Agent," he said instead, because he could. Coulson didn't look constipated whenever he spoke anymore, which he found strange. He'd dealt with the man a lot, and while he had a good dead pan, Tony was better at seeing when people were annoyed at him. Either Agent was getting better, or he didn't find Tony himself obnoxious anymore. He didn't know what to think of that.

"We need you to look over this. As soon as possible." Tony looked at the files, not moving to take them.

"I don't like being handed things." He had never explained why, probably because he didn't want people to know. The worst news were handed over on official papers, by closed faced men in suits. Meals could be easily poisoned that way, bombs held carefully in wrapped packages. He had a problem with being handed things.

"Well, that's all right, because I love being handed things." Pepper swapped out the champagne for the files, faster than he could step away, and he frowned, but didn't say anything. It was Pepper after all.

"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday." He knew perfectly well that, if push came to shove, he wouldn't be a consultant. While officially he was too much of a loose cannon to trust, SHIELD knew that he had better weapons than they did.

"Is this about the Avengers? … Which I know nothing about." Pepper didn't care to lie to Coulson, apparently, or had actually forgotten Tony's habit of telling her classified information. He began to look through the files, which, as Pepper had thought, were the Avengers personal files. Absently, he pointed out that the Initiative had been scrapped.

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-centered, doesn't play well with others."

"That, I did know." Coulson said something else, about how dire the situation was, no doubt, but Tony wasn't interested.

"Whatever. Miss Potts, got a minute?" She walked over, still carrying her glass and looking sinfully attractive in her very short shorts. He hated being even somewhat responsible.

"I thought we were having a moment." She smirked at him.

"I was having twelve percent of one. Phil looks pretty shaken." He winced inwardly.

"Why is he Phil?" How often did they get together when he wasn't around?

"What is all this?" She ignored his question entirely, looking at the pad he held. He looked down as well, watching the video and text roll across the screen, before 'throwing' it at the various screens around.

"This is… this," he said, as the screens lit up with the individual files of each potential member of the Initiative. Pepper looked around.

"You have a lot of homework." Tony turned to look at her, not really wanting her to leave him to go to DC.

"What if I didn't?"

"You mean if you were done?" He nodded, and she smiled, leaning in to whisper in his ear. He could see Coulson looking away, in a semblance of privacy.

"Square deal. It's the last date." She smiled again.

"Work hard."

_XxX_

Tony wondered if Fury knew exactly how easy it was to track his agents. He didn't even need to hack into their mainframe; he could just track jets coming out of nowhere, and follow from there. The one he figured was going to apprehend Loki had shown up in the middle of a blank space of cloud, before flying out to Germany. Not that he hadn't already known where the Helicarrier was; he'd designed the thing, after all. He was a few minutes behind it, and had time to leave Fury a message.

"If you're going to ask me to help, you ought to, I don't know, actually ask. I do have other things to do than track jets containing agents and living legends, funnily enough." He got an email a few moments later detailing the current mission, which was surprising, enough that JARVIS asked if he was alright.

He saw the fight before he could reach it. Captain America, in all his patriotic glory, going fist to fist with Loki. It was a surprisingly even fight. Tony took the moments it took him to get close to hack into the PA system of the jet.

"Agent Romanov. Miss me?" With the dramatics of the arrival out of the way, he landed hard, arming up and aiming at the man in front of him.

"Your move, Reindeer Games." He didn't look much like the other gods that had landed in New Mexico (Coulson's report was very thorough). Sure, there was armor and a scepter instead of more modern weapons, but he lacked the physical appearance of a Viking that the others had all had. Tony would guess that this guy was the intellectual of the group. Might explain the magic instead of wholly physical attacks, though the man was far from weak. Magic might explain the emancipated look, too, but likely not the madness his eyes seemed to hold.

His arms went up in surrender, armor vanishing into a nice tuxedo. He didn't look like someone who was giving up.

Tony's weapons went down.

"Good move." Next to him was the Captain himself, who didn't take his eyes off of Loki.

"Mr. Stark." So he had been briefed. Good, that would hopefully keep the 'I knew your father' speech down to a minimum. His file had 'daddy issues' labeled very clearly.

"Captain."

_XxX_

The jet was rather awkwardly quiet. He and Captain Rogers were both standing near the only exit, in case their prisoner tried to escape, and Loki himself was buckled into one of the seats, looking wholly unbothered by his capture.

"I don't like it." It took him a second to realize he hadn't spoken aloud, and that the Captain had said something instead.

"What, Rock of Ages giving in so easily?" He nodded, still not really looking at Tony. Tony was starting to get the feeling it was on purpose.

"I don';t remember it being that easy. This guy packs a wallop." Tony couldn't resist poking a bit of fun at the guy. His father had gone on for years on how awesome and patriotic and heroic Captain America had been, and instead Tony had this tense military man in a spangled leather uniform.

"Still, you're pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your secret? Pilates?" Finally, he had eye contact!

"What?"

"It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a few things, being a Capsickle." The blue eyes hardened, Captain Rogers looking annoyed. At least it was an emotion.

_(Rumbling nearby, likely a storm, nothing on reports, possibly fabricated. Dangerous to fly, Agent Romanov capable. Thor control of lightening, brother of Loki. Captain America super serum improves on all physical abilities, hearing likely picked up sound, strength possible match for Thor, unknown resistance of shield to hammer, speed of jet at…) _

"You know, Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in." Fury had known he was en route before they had entered European air space, hadn't he.

"Yeah. There's a lot of things Fury didn't tell you." He had probably assumed they could sort it out themselves, but Tony didn't mind fostering some distrust of everyone's favorite one-eyed Director.

The rumbling was worse, enough for the plane to rock a bit at the thunder. Natasha was muttering to herself, trying to determine what was going on, while Captain Rogers asked Loki what he was doing.

Tony had the honor of being thrown out of the way by Thor as he stormed through the now open hatch, grabbed his _(foster, enemy race, defeated years ago and still trying to recover) _brother, before jumping back out. He growled in annoyance as he grabbed his helmet and jumped.

JARVIS was streaming the information from Thor's rather short file onto the HUB, but he knew enough to know that what he was about to do was rather stupid. He hoped he could distract Thor long enough for Captain Rogers or Agent Romanov to recapture Loki and get out of there. He could also try and get Thor on their side, but who knew why he was even here.

He went through with his rather basic plan; tackle Thor away from Loki, far into the woods below. He almost regretted it as Loki's face came onto his screen, recorded helpfully by JARVIS. At times, he looked almost contrite.

"Do not touch me again." Thor sounded every inch the prince he was, and stood in a stance that said clearly how angry he was at being interrupted.

"Then don't touch my stuff." If Thor was a royal prince, Tony was a petulant one. Thor's face hardened.

"You do not know what you are messing with." He could feel a snaky retort building in his throat, and, knowing that it could in no way help get this alien to work with them, said it anyway.

"Shakespeare in the park? Doth mother know that you weareth her drapes?" Thor responded with some higher sounding command, Asgardian justice and all that. But he had killed American agents; that made him Earth's problem for now, especially with the Tessaract MIA.

"He gives up the Cube and he's all yours. Until then, stay out of the way." He muttered tourist under his breath as he turned, scanners indicating that Loki was still where they had left him, but the jet was closing in. He'd need a few more minutes.

Thor attacked, as he'd thought, but with considerably more force than Tony had figured a hammer could hold. He began to worry, abruptly, that this plan was even stupider than JARVIS had already told him it was.

_(Strength higher than indicated in report, hammer channels lightening with incredible ease, control and power. Suit chargers work at 4x power maximum; noted for future fights. Thor mostly unaffected by burning of thrusters; blasted backwards by force. Agent Romanov sending message: Loki apprehended-) _Something clanged into his helmet, before rebounding into Thor and going back to…

Captain America, who instead of helping Agent Romanov was standing in front of them, stopping the fight. While a rather stupid move on his part, Tony could admit, to himself, that it was preferred to trying to retreat at this point.

"You want me to put it down!?" What was he _doing?_

"No, bad move, he loves that hammer-" He was unceremoniously shoved out of the way while Thor leapt at Captain Rogers. Tony spared a moment to wonder why he'd essentially been pushed out of the danger zone, before watching in awe at the resulting explosion of lightening and vibranium.

He stood, and walked forward to meet the other two in the center of the destruction.

"JARVIS, send funds to whoever does the upkeep on this place to help replant the area."

"Yes sir." The other two had apparently settled their differences and were introducing themselves. He spoke up.

"Agent Romanov has Loki, and the jet above waiting for us. You want a ride up, Captain?" He nodded, looking a bit peeved, probably at Tony. Thor spoke up.

"Metal Man, you have not deigned to introduce yourself to the good captain and myself. Tell us your name!" Tony looked up at him and saw, surprisingly, no anger, just determination and friendliness. Maybe fighting in a Viking-like world meant the survivors were the best of friends.

"Tony Stark. Iron Man in this armor. Can we wait until we get to the Helicarrier before we break out the name games?" He didn't wait for an answer. He had, abruptly, twenty things to do, improvements to the new armor and repairs to this one, and a few emails about CEO-things to do. A state of emergency in the universe didn't mean he could slack off and not sign paperwork.

He grabbed Captain Rogers by the waist and jetted back to the air. Thor as behind them. He, apparently, flew by spinning that hammer as quickly as possible. What the hell?

Agent Romanov glanced at him when he set Captain Rogers back in the jet. Loki looked… blank, despite the likelihood that he would be sitting next to his brother for a few some time.

"You boys done?" Tony grinned at her, under his helmet. Despite her spying on him, and stabbing him in the neck, he liked the woman. She'd contacted him after that incident, said she was checking up on him for SHIELD, but he didn't buy it.

"Naturally. You want to take these guys back? I need to be elsewhere for a few minutes." Really, he wanted to fly free while he made the necessary calls and messages for Stark Industries, and it seemed ridiculous to be on a plane when he could fly and there were two blond hunks to guard the prisoner.

He walked past Thor on his way out of the jet, and fell smoothly into the open air. He wished, sometimes, he could do this without the armor.

_XxX_

He met with Coulson in the wing he'd set aside for the armor. It had an lock that no one else could open, as he didn't trust SHIELD to be able to resist the temptation of it unguarded. Coulson watched him activate the locks without a word.

"So, where were you when this mess was called in?" Coulson glanced at him, eyebrow raised.

"At the office."

"Not visiting your pianist friend in Portland?" Coulson shook his head, in exasperation, probably. Tony had managed to wring out a location once, as well as a musical occupation.

"He's a cellist, and no, I really don't have time to visit out of state. This job is rather demanding, and tickets aren't the cheapest things in the world." They neared the door, and Tony could hear the conversation inside; iridium was missing.

"It's a stabilizing agent." He called out, causing everyone in the room to turn and look. He leaned back and whispered to Coulson.

"Just give me a weekend, and I'll fly you out. Gotta keep the love alive." Coulson gave him a semi-smile as he turned back to the room at large.

"Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." He patted Thor on the shoulder as he walked past, and said something, though he wasn't paying all that much attention. Probably something sarcastic. Inside were all the potential members of the Initiative, except Agent Barton, codename Hawkeye. He'd been captured, mind controlled according to Fury's report, and was currently amassing a group to help Loki.

"Also means the portal can stay open as wide and as long as Loki wants." He glanced down at the techs below the bridge, noting the position of power it gave. He placed JARVIS' hook up, while calling out some stupid commands to call attention away from his movements. He looked at the far corner, where one of the screens didn't match the others.

"That man is playing Galaga!" He crowed, delighted, and could practically feel the annoyance at his lack of professionalism behind him.

"Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." He tilted his head, looking at the moniters and covering one eye.

"How does Fury see these?" Agent Hill was behind him, the most likely to have seen him place the bug.

"He turns." She didn't sound suspicious, just annoyed. Good.

"Sounds exhausting." That ruled out anyone else, as they were all watching him with the same expression.

"The rest of the materials, Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he needs is an energy source. A high energy density, capable of kick starting the Cube." He had the lead scientist of the task with him, too, which would mean he knew exactly what he was doing.

"When did you become an expert on thermonuclear-astro physics?" Hill was watching him closely. Maybe she had an idea of what he was up to after all.

"Last night." Nobody seemed to ever remember anything he was besides rich and annoying. "Am I the only one who did the reading?" He really wanted to get out of here and go to the lab he'd built for this place. It was fully equipped, and he could get to digging on exactly what Fury was up to. He did not trust their intentions on the Cube. Science could be make both medicine and poison, and SHIELD didn't seem the kid-friendly place that would be making clean energy.

"He'd need to super heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." That would be Doctor Bruce Banner, resident physicist. Tony turned to face him, eyes lighting up.

"Unless Selvig figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Banner met his eyes behind his glasses. They weren't the green from his videos, which meant, to Tony, that he wasn't nearly as out of control as the reports indicated. The months without an incident corroborated.

"Well, if he could do that they could achieve heavy nuclear fusion at any reactor on the planet." Tony grinned, pleased to be able to work with this guy.

"Finally someone who speaks English!" Behind him, be could hear the Captain mutter "Is that what that was?"

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled," he said, and as a test, added, "And I'm a huge fan of the way you turn into a giant green rage monster." As he'd expected, no reaction beyond some surprise on his face. Nothing to indicate this man had anything less than perfect control at this point.

"Thanks." Fury pointed out he wasn't here to become the Hulk, just to help with the Cube, which made Tony grin wider. Good, a long chance to watch another genius at work.

They were still talking behind him, but he only barely listened, though he did note the excitement in the Captain's voice when he actually understood a cultural reference. Flying monkeys, really. Who was catching this guy up? He hadn't made it past the forties yet!

_XxX_

"You know you should come to Stark Towers, sometime. Ten floors of R & D, it's a candy land," Tony said, as they worked on getting the system tracking the Tessaract. He subtly got another system hooked to JARVIS, who was hacking through the SHIELD mainframe, trying to find the Tessaract files.

"Thanks, but the last time I was in Ner York, I broke… Harlem." Tony grinned.

"Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No surprises, no tension." He took the opportunity to jab the man with one of his computer tools. Banner jumped, and stared at him. He peered close, watching his face. Still no reaction. Physical violence didn't trigger him either. Excellent. He'd lay off for now.

"Are you nuts?" Rogers had entered without him noticing. He turned to look at the man. He was still in the spangly outfit, which Tony knew for a fact Coulson had designed.

"You really have a lid on it, don't you? What's your secret? Mello jazz, bongo drums, big bag of weed?" He said, knowing it would annoy Rogers.

"Is everything a joke to you?" That line almost always came up.

"Funny things are." He smirked, wanting to drive this guy up the wall. He couldn't see the humor, the honor, or anything his father had so loved about this man, or at least what he said he loved. Howard always did love a science project.

"Putting the lives of everyone on board isn't a joking matter. No offense." He added, glancing at Dr. Banner. Tony wondered where he stood on the monster issue; he didn't seem to be judging him.

"None taken. I wouldn't have come on board if I couldn't stand pointy things." He could hear the humor, subtle as it was.

"You're tip-toeing big man. You need to strut." Rogers glared at him.

"You need to focus on the job at hand." Brilliant. He had to deal with a stickler for the rules.

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us out, and why now? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation without all the variables." He could see the subtle shift in the mans attention, a bit more serious.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Maybe there was hope for the guy.

"He's a spy, Captain. He's _the _spy. His secrets have secrets. And it's bugging him, too!" He pointed to Banner, who looked back up from what he was working on.

"Uh… I just want to finish my work and get out of here…" He seemed a bit more uncomfortable with Rogers in the room; the military thing, probably.

"Dr. Banner?"

"'A warm light for all of humanity to share.' Loki's jab at Fury." Rogers nodded, looking far more open to Banner than Tony. He wasn't surprised, and turned to get a bag of blueberries. He didn't trust the food here, either in freshness or if it was drugged.

"Well, I think that was meant for you. It was all over the news, even if Barton didn't tell." Rogers seemed to know what he was talking about.

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly…" he paused, looking a bit embarrassed. Tony gave him an unimpressed look. Pepper had designed the Tower, and it looked magnificent, especially lit up at night against the backdrop of the sky.

"… tower in New York?"

"It's powered by Stark's reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" He looked back for confirmation. Tony shrugged, popping a few berries into his mouth.

"It's just the prototype." He tried not to be smug about the technology. It was bought in blood, after all, of Yinsen and Vanko, both of them.

"Well, why didn't SHIELD call him in on the Tessaract project? What are they doing in the energy business anyway?" Tony nodded, acknowledging the point, and offering the blueberries. Banner took one.

"I should look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files." Not so secure, really. Banner looked amused as he looked down again, and Rogers turned to stare at him.

"I'm sorry, did you just-?" He almost laughed straight-out at the mans face.

"JARVIS has been running since I hit the bridge. In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD ever tried to hide." He offered the bag as well.

"Blueberry?" Rogers batted the bag away.

"Yet you're confused as to why they didn't want you on-board?" Tony crooked an eyebrow, wondering at this guy. He got the duty thing, sort of, but the unwavering belief that a system was infallible was a dangerous one.

"An intelligence agency that fears intelligence? Historically not possible."

_(Conclusion: SHIELD could not risk his reaction to the research on the Cube. As I have issues on very few points, likely weapons manufacturing. Potential research into HYDRA weaponry.)_

"Just find the Cube." He stormed out, and Tony shook his head, annoyed and confused.

"That's the guy my dad couldn't shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice." Also wondering how jarring it was to wake up in a different era, when everything he knew and the people he'd loved were dead.

"They guy's not wrong about Loki, he does have the jump on us."

"What's he's got is an ACME dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does."

_(Capture not resisted or avoided. Conclusion: plan can be executed without Loki's presence. Conclusion: Loki has a plan of escape, and can control Barton without having to be around him 24/7. Aggression high; possible plan to psych out enemies. Potential plan to release the Hulk. Banner most tense when military crew is present. Conclusion: keep away from Banner.)_

"Hey, I've read all about your accident. That much gamma radiation should have killed you."

"So, you're saying that the Hulk- the other guy, saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. For what?" Tony shrugged, glancing at the glass behind him. The Hulk stared back, wary but non-threatening.

"I guess we'll find out."

_XxX_

"What are you doing Mr. Stark?" He'd known the bug wasn't going to be subtle; he'd needed speed, not invisibility.

"Kinda been wondering the same about you." He glanced back at the various screens while Bruce described what they were doing.

One dinged its' completion of a task.

"What is stage 2?" The door opened again, and he looked up to see Rogers walk into the room, clanging a gun onto the table and attracting the others' attention.

"Stage 2 is where SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons. Sorry," he added, looking at Tony, "your method was taking too long for me." Tony grinned, pleased. The man was more than what he seemed. Fury was protesting while he read the final results of his search.

"I'm sorry Nick, what were you lying?"

There was chaos as several more people entered; the whole team was in one room. Tony wanted to leave, or get others out. Agent Romanov was trying to get Bruce out, into a calmer area, but now he was angry, as Fury explained the weapons program, and the reasoning.

"A nuclear deterrent. Because that always works." He's tried that, with SHIELD against the idea; it had ended in a lot of destruction and had almost killed everyone at the Expo.

"Remind me of how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury looked at him in challenge.

"I'm sure if Stark still made weapons he'd be neck-deep.." Rogers added, which made Tony whirl to look at him.

"Wait, when did this become about me?" Hadn't they been on the same side? He knew his hands were filthy, practically dripping in the blood of millions of people, but he didn't _do _that anymore.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" This wasn't a fight about weapons, this was a free-for all, everyone lashing out at everyone. What was going on?

_(Aggression levels incredibly high, made worse by weapons. Unnaturally aggressive, Banner now tense and defensive. Probability that Loki is trying to release Hulk raised. Variables: location, military personnel, tense and dangerous situation. Magic. Scepter introduced to lab.)_

"Why shouldn't we let the guy let off some steam?" _Get him out of here, this is not going to help. _

"You know damn well why! Back off!" Rogers yelled at him, apparently having chosen his target.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Get all attention on himself, give Bruce a chance to retreat or calm down. Not working just yet.

"Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?" Tony tried to be flippant, annoying, noting that the others were quiet now.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Rogers scoffed, looking down his nose at him. Why did all these people have to be so damn tall?

"I've known guys without all that worth ten of you. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, lay on the wire so your buddy can crawl over you." Tony didn't wince, slipping into a thick skin he'd worn for decades.

"I think I'd just cut the wire." This wasn't about the rest of the room; just him and Rogers now.

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be the villain, but you had better stop pretending to be a hero." He did wince at that, remembering how proud he'd been after that first mission, and the chaos it had caused later, with Stane. He got letters from little kids, in some different languages sometimes, thanking him. They were outnumbered by the demands he give up the suit, the reminders of the dead on his hands, the blood of innocents always dripping from the metal gloves.

"A hero like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came from a bottle." That wasn't true, everyone in the room knew it, ought to realize he was grasping at straws, wounded. He, of all people, knew the origin story of Captain America.

"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds." Behind them, the arguments had started again, and he turned when Bruce began speaking.

"You thought it could kill me, but it won't. I know, I've tried. I got low, I didn't know what to do, so I put a bullet in my mouth, and the Other Guy spat it out." Tony stared, feeling immeasurably exhausted and devastated, even, though he had no reason. He liked this man, broken as he seemed, and the image of him trying… he didn't want to see it.

Bruce was holding the scepter, voice rising, when Fury asked him to put it down. He looked back, as though shocked he had it, before another monitor went off, and he set it down harshly, walking forward. Tony found himself in an argument ith Rogers and Thor, surprisingly, about who was to go for the Cube.

"Oh my God," was all he heard before they were knocked over by an explosion that rocked the whole ship, if he had to guess.

He found himself being helped up by Rogers, stumbling in the uneven flooring and dust.

"Put on the suit." Tony wanted to laugh.

"Yup!" They helped each other to the doorway, almost falling. He sent Rogers towards where the explosion had seemed to hit, as the PA system confirmed an engine was down.

"I'll meet you there, go!"

His armor wing was close, and he sent a signal for it to open up as he ran there, so when he reached the wall it was housed in the armor enveloped him immediately. A hatch opened, allowing him to slip into open air and towards the damaged engine.

"Stark, I'm here!" His comm spoke in Rogers voice as he reached the damage. Most of the wall was gone, and he really didn't want to think about the total damage to the engine itself.

"All right, let's see what we got." He began towards the damage anyway, scanning the blueprints and actual mess, moving broken pieces and letting them drop into the sky.

"I need you to get to that control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position." Rogers ran towards the panel, pulling it out of its place in the wall. He moved further into the engine, still cutting away debris.

"What's it look like?" He asked, when his helmet was too quiet for too long.

"It appears to run on some form of electricity." Rogers quipped sarcastically. He sounded exasperated and annoyed, possibly at himself for not knowing what to do. Tony chuckled.

"Well, you're not _wrong…_" He began to explain, trying to stay away from technical language without being too condescending. He couldn't see the panel, so he hoped it looked like the prints. Rogers took commands rather well, apparently accepting that this was Tony's area of expertise.

_XxX_

"I'm going to have to go in there and push," He said, more to himself that Rogers, though the comm was open.

"If that thing gets up to speed, you'll be shredded!" Was that concern?

"Then stay in the control unit and reverse the polarity long enough-" Tony was cut off.

"Speak English!" He almost laughed, remembering his earlier comment, and sparing a hope that Bruce and Natasha were okay. They'd been closest to the glass wall, and he was fairly sure they'd fallen through it.

"You see that red lever? It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word." He jumped into the space between the blades, bracing himself for some pain. He knew it was unlikely that he would get out entirely unscathed, but he wasn't about to tell Rogers that. Like he didn't explain that the suit was run by his pacemaker; people got antsy when he knew he could die from his plans.

The engine picked up, and he could feel the blades begin to move on their own.

"Cap, need the lever." He could hear fighting on the comm, which meant that Rogers had company.

"Need a minute!" The blades left his hands, and he had a half a moment to brace himself and yell before he began to clang around the engine like a rock in washing machine.

"Lever! Now!" The blades slow minutely, just enough to get out, and jerkily fly towards Rogers and his assailant, who he tackled as he dove into the Helicarrier. He didn't want to think about flying anywhere in this suit, not without significant repairs. Both boots were sputtering.

_XxX_

He stormed into the Hulk chamber, mind going a million different directions. Hearing the call earlier and not recognizing it, Fury holding the stained cards, and the bloodstain on the wall opposite him, smeared like he'd slipped down it slowly, bleeding from the chest. He looked away, remembering that he didn't know where in Portland to look. A cellist wasn't very helpful.

"Was he married?" Rogers had followed him, and walked in from another doorway. He sighed.

"No. There was a cellist, I believe." He didn't. Believe, that was. The lover thing, yeah, but he couldn't see Phil getting a civilian involved in his life without some kind of defense. He could be wrong.

"I'm sorry, he seemed like a good man." Tony remembered the footage, of him taking care of the Thor problem, blowing his way into Stane's hidden lab, disarming two robbers with a bag of flour in a gas station.

"He was an idiot. He should have waited. He should have…" He didn't know.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." He heard his first name, something he rarely heard except for Pepper, and felt drained, all aggression leaked from him.

_(Footage indicates Phil's wound being covered, dragged away by medics. Audio in cameras not viable, unclear what was said. Potential to have lived: 7%. Wound mortal if not cared for immediately. Scepter seems to be source of aggression within team, caused Hulk breakout. Thor missing. Both presumed out of action. Captured Hawkeye, seems to be returned to normal.)_

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" He whirled, angry.

"We are _not _soldiers. I'm not marching to Fury's fife." If he was here, it was not for patriotism. Soldiers were too loyal, but they were honest, direct. He was selfish, and only fighting to clean his hands and for personal revenge. JARVIS and he had lied; no security system he'd build would keep out Agent Phil Coulson, his own personal liaison into SHIELD, and his friend.

"He made it personal."

"That's not the point," Steve said, trying to get Tony back on track, on trying to trace Loki.

"That is the point. That's loci's point. He hit us where it hurts. Why?"

"To tear us apart." Tony frowned, mind whirling with thoughts.

"He had to conquer his greed. He knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants an audience." He wanted recognition, to show he was _more than what people thought of him, more than a useless face to a company, more more more…._

"That was the previews, this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full scale dive. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered-" His name, brilliant against the night sky. '_Like Christmas, but with more… me.'_ Steve had the same look of realization on his face.

"Son of a bitch." Loki was going to use Stark Tower.

_XxX_

Tony didn't think he'd done a faster patch job than this one. More pressing was the worry that it wouldn't hold together long enough to reach Stark Tower. He had other suits, but he if he wanted an upper hand, the newer the better.

On his roof was the machine, and Dr. Selvig, who was alone. He had the same look of madness Loki held.

"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig." He didn't expect his command to work, but it was worth a try. He also needed his suit ready to go when he reached Loki.

"It's too late! You can't stop it now. He wants to show us a new universe!" Tony tried blasting it anyway, but the portal opened, shooting into the sky and creating a barrier of pure energy around the machine itself. Great.

Down in the penthouse he gets out of the suit, keeping an eye on Loki, who looks amused as he takes off his only defense and walks towards the bar, where the tracking bracelets are.

"Please tell me you've come to appeal to my humanity." He sounds like a kid who got to play villain; looking forward to the cliché lines he'll be fed before unleashing his evil plot.

"Actually I'm here to threaten you." Loki smirks.

"You should have left the armor on for that." Tony wasn't sure if the armor could have stood up to an attack anyway, in that state.

"It's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the glowing blue stick of destiny, anyway. Want a drink?" He could see a bit of confusion, under the layer of crazy and bright blue. It matched his staff, and Selvig.

"Stalling won't change anything." He waved off the comment.

"No, no, no. Threatening, remember? No drink, you sure? I'm having one." He silently toasted it to Phil before drinking, snapping on the bracelets while he finished.

"The Chitari are coming, nothing will change that. What do I have to fear?" Tony shrugged.

"The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing." Loki smirked, moving closer. Tony remembered the footage of the scepter, tapping on the chest and taking their mind. He tried not to move away.

"Yes, I've met them."

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demi-God; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them," he pointed at Loki, this arrogant man who had killed one of the few good men Tony knew.

"I have an army." Tony scowled.

"We have a Hulk." Not yet, but he knew Bruce; he wouldn't leave them in dire straights. And Loki didn't know that Hulk couldn't easily die.

"You're missing the point. There's no throne, no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe they're too much for us. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned sure we'll avenge it." Loki smirked, drawing closer, scepter pointed at Tony's chest. He was taking a gamble here, one he could easily lose.

"How will your friends have time for me, when they're busy fighting you?" The point came down with a clank, and Tony breathed a small sigh of relief. Maybe the reactor, maybe he was heartless, but the scepter didn't work.

"That usually works." Loki looked utterly lost, his weapon having lost its' power.

"Well, performance issues, you know. One in three, I believe-" Loki's face turned to rage, and dragged him towards the window.

"JARVIS, any time now." With more strength than it looked like he held, Loki threw him through the glass, shattering around him as he fell.

The suit flew down, with half a second to spare. He was eternally thankful that the stabilizers couldn't harm anyone.

"Oh, there was one more person you pissed off. His name was Phil," he added as he reached the top once again.

The portal began to spill Chitari out, like insects from a hive in the sky. He flew away from Loki, towards the amassing creatures in the sky.

_XxX_

Natasha contacted him as they came into range.

"What, did you stop for drive thru or something. Hold on, I'll lay them out for you." He'd fought with Agent Romanov before, knew how to work with her. The others, he could predict well enough, though Hulk would be a loose cannon in all likelihood.

Above them, the portal releases a whale of a ship, appearing to swim down and shedding Chitari everywhere.

"Stark, you seeing this?" Captain Rogers voice came through now, from somewhere below the wreckage.

"Seeing. Working on believing. Where's Banner?" He asked, to distract himself from the sheer destruction around him.

_(Your Tower, your reactors. Your faultfaultfault)_

"Banner?" He frowned, looking for weaknesses in the armor of the thing in front of him.

"Just keep me posted!" He wasn't a leader, not here. He'd leave the Captain to take charge of the others, and worry about his own end.

"JARVIS, find me a soft spot."

_XxX_

They meet up in the square, Thor meeting from his fight with Loki, Tony still in the skies.

"The Cube is impenetrable," Thor sighed.

"He's right. We'll have to deal with these guys for now."

"How do we do this?"

"As a team." Because, at this point, it was that easy. They all had their reasons, but personal grudges didn't have a place here.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor pointed out. Agent Barton scoffed.

"Yeah? Well get in line." When this was over, Tony would wonder what it had been like, under Loki's control. For now, he was relieved that they had another member on the team; they needed all the help they could get.

Captain Rogers was discussing strategy, placing Tony as a aerial fighter (obviously), when he stopped, sound going dead in Tony's ear while he engaged the giant whale ship.

"Well, this all looks awful." Tony grinned in grim amusement. Bruce.

"Stark, we got him. Banner. Just like you said." Captain Rogers sounded amazed, like he thought Tony would be dead wrong.

"Yeah? Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."

He watched in pleasure while Bruce transformed and punched the ship to bits. They had a Hulk, indeed.

_XxX_

He was directed back into the air, bringing Agent Barton to shoot from a roof.

"Better clench up, Legolas." To Barton's credit, he did, and didn't seem annoyed at his rather rough treatment. Not that Tony could really be gentle when handling someone while clad in metal armor. He even nodded in thanks when he was set down.

The fight was long, gritty in a way Tony hadn't expected, making his muscles clench and cuts bleed where the armor was bashed in and cut through with weapons it had never been meant to face. Agent Barton was an incredible asset, living up to the name Hawkeye.

"They can't bank worth a damn." And sure enough, he had three crashing into a wall at the next turn.

"Not bad. What else you got."

"Well, Thor's got a bunch on his tail."

"And he didn't invite me?"

_XxX_

They were making no progress, only keeping the flow from getting further, into the populated areas of the city or off the island. They couldn't keep this up, the portal needed to be closed.

"Stark, you hearing me? We got a nuclear missile headed straight for the city!" Fury's voice filtered in through the mess.

"How long?"

"Three minutes, at best." The Council, then. They met in a crisis and decided that this was the best course of action? He hated politicians.

He flew towards the bomb as it came straight for the city center.

They had found a way to close the portal.

"No, wait!" Captain Rogers responded immediately. He sounded tired.

"Stark, these things are still coming!" He knew that, they seemed to never end.

"I've got a nuke coming in, it'll blow in less than a minute." He got a hold of the thing, getting underneath and changing the direction.

"And I know just where to put it." The trajectory was too steep, too fast. He'd never be able to let go without the missile falling short of its target, and they didn't have time to try and launch it better.

"Stark. You know that's a one-way trip." He didn't respond, watching as Pepper's phone dialed, the icon sitting in his eyes as he flew into the abyss.

The missile went through his hands, with enough momentum to reach the huge complex in front of him, while Chitari swarmed around it. The call failed, and the power began to go. He knew, of course he knew, the portal would be a one-way trip. The Chitari might have known as well, maybe this was a suicide mission to them. But that abyss, that endless darkness… he could imagine trying to escape from that.

_(I stared into the abyss. And the abyss stared back.)_ His eyes closed. The arc reactor was quiet in his chest, the HUB blank and dark. It was cold, in this place.

He fell.

_XxX_

Tony hated the feeling of shock when his heart restarted, and as often as it happened, he thought he ought to be more used to the pain it caused for a moment before settling.

He was on the street, looking up at three faces. Two surprised blonds and an annoyed green one.

_(I lived? How did I live? How did you know to kickstart the reactor? Who caught me? Did it work? How many died because of my reactors this time? How many deaths do I atone for? Did anyone else look into that dark space? Did it look back, burn into your soul?)_

"Please tell me nobody kissed me." He said. The comment startles a laugh.

"We won." He's babbling, not entirely aware of what he's talking about now. Something about food; he does that when he's stressed or relieved. He eats.

"We aren't quite done yet."

_XxX_

Tony doesn't think he can thank Bruce enough, so he only says it once, before congratulating him for his spectacular Loki bashing. He has decided to fill the outline in another color, so the shape can always be seen. Bruce shakes his head at him.

Shwarma is good, though he is as surprised as anyone that he suggested it. Bruce, Thor and Steve seem to be starving, so when Bruce absently takes off of Tony's plate, he just moves it closer. Heart issues tend to kill his appetite, though he occasionally gets a longing for a health smoothie.

They don't talk much, just eat, and he observes. Natasha and Barton are close to each other, but it doesn't look romantic. Not that he'd know, offhand, but he'd put money on them just being used to dealing with crisis together.

Thor is… tired, and considering all that had happened with Loki, a bit heartbroken looking. Bruce simply looks exhausted, as does Steve. Tony himself feels like he'll keel over any minute, and goes to staring at a wall and listening to the news report what he had just been a part of.

_XxX_

The hand off for the Tessaract goes well. He doesn't put up a fight for the Cube; the potentials it has for energy are too dangerous for him to want it on Earth. If he could ever to Asgard, however…

Steve is ecstatic about the old motorcycle he'd given back, so he didn't mention that he may have been the restorer on the old thing. Sitting for decades hadn't done the gears too well.

He went to Natasha, and passed her a letter, only saying goodbye, for now. She didn't even look. Barton he shook hands with, and grinned. He wouldn't mind working with him again.

Bruce, he finally met as they went back to his car. They drove towards the Tower, and Tony felt excited. Building new things from the old. It would be like him; reborn from its' own ashes.

He was more excited, to be fair, to design for more than him. It was a challenge, and a good way to welcome a team in.


	6. Chapter 6

For an assignment about alien technology creating portals to other dimensions, the task was incredibly boring.

The scientists below him looked a bit like ants, scurrying from one station to another, writing notes and ideas on the Tessaract's power levels or some other observations they deemed important. It was a bit over his head (thermonuclear astrophysics weren't offered in high school, who knew?), but the gist that he'd gotten was that it was usually dormant, but was currently giving off strange signals that had the scientists down there worried. Selvig, the scientist that had been in New Mexico, was walking over to meet Director Fury, who had just arrived. After a few moments, Selvig gestured towards Clint's location.

"Barton, report to me." Fury called him down, a mix between calling a dog and asking an acquaintance to speak. Clint was never sure what Fury thought of him, but he didn't treat him like a moron or a homicidal time bomb, and that was enough for some respect in Clint's book.

"Barton, I gave you this detail so you could keep an eye on things." Despite the reprimand, he didn't sound overly annoyed. Clint's habits were well-known.

"Yeah, well, I see better from a distance." He gave a report on what was happening. Which was to say, nothing different than when he'd first gotten to the compound. He assumed that the Tessaract was reacting to something else, at the other end.

"At this end?" Fury sounded confused. For some reason, Clint was reminded of Master Windu asking of Anakin "A Sith _Lord?"_ in the latest Star Wars movie. The same shocked response to a rather mundane statement. Of course Palpatine was the Sith Lord, they should have picked up on it years ago.

"Yeah. The cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors go both ways." Fury didn't have a chance to respond; the door opened.

The man standing in the center looked… mad, in a crazy kind of way. Not like mad scientist, but closer to a guy in a psych ward that tried to bite his way through his bonds, and looked up with his mouth still bloody.

The scientists went down, they weren't trained, but so do Clint's fellow agents, and that makes him reckless, goes for the man, Loki.

"You have heart." The spear, which he'd thought was about to go through his chest, taps at his sternum.

The world goes blue.

_XxX_

Loki and Fury are talking at each other, a pissing contest with high stakes. Fury has the Cube, a glowing blue thing even through the case Fury has it trussed up in. Its' color pierces through Clint's mind. He speaks up after a minute of conversation.

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling." The words taste odd in his mouth, as though they weren't what he meant to say, or were in a language he hadn't expected to use. Nobody else seems to notice the change, as Selvig speaks from where he stood, reading the charts. The portal that Loki had taken was collapsing in on itself, and would likely take the entire complex with it.

The thought panged in his mind, several thoughts battling to be heard, before they were soothed by blue light. A face almost makes an appearance, a voice, before everything is calm.

He shoots Fury, directly in the chest. A part of his mind brings up an image of a target at the shooting range, the head full of holes and nowhere else. An image of a vest swims through the blue. He picked up the case, and followed Loki, Selvig and the few other agents with them, out of the room and towards the parking garage.

Hill is standing there, and looks at Loki in confusion while Clint commandeers the vehicles.

"Who is he?"

"He didn't tell me." Technically, Selvig had, but Loki had a brief file in SHIELD database, and being one of the agents present in New Mexico gave Clint the clearance to look.

They're almost away when he hears Hill's comm speak up, Fury on the other end. She turns to shoot; he has a gun drawn. She dives behind another car instead while they screech out of the garage. Loki is laughing in the back of the truck.

_XxX_

Being chased down by armed agents in another car wasn't something most people could be used to, so mundane he blanked on the details, but there it was. Clint barely remembered their escape, only noting that he wasn't injured. C****** would be pleased…

He shook his head, trying to clear it. They were in the lab, a remote location that he was fairly sure he'd found, but couldn't actively recall where he'd found it, or how. Probably in one of the blank places in his memory, adrenaline-riddled to the point that there were holes he could fit his arm through.

"Where did you find all these people?" Selvig walks towards him, curious. His eyes glow blue.

"SHIELD has no shortage of enemies, Doctor." He recognized them, from the snippets of his mind, but couldn't recall which side they'd been on, whether they'd been enemies or friends. Red hair flitted across his mind, washing away in the sea.

"Is this what you need, Doctor?" Iridium. It would act as a stabilizer, so the collapse wouldn't happen when they reopened the doorway. He didn't know what was supposed to come through, Loki was fairly tight lipped about it. He didn't like working partially blind, one of his many traits, but he didn't have much of a choice.

"What did the Tessaract show you, Agent Barton?" Loki, when had he arrived? His instincts felt weighed down, slow. He didn't have this problem when working, but in moments like this, he didn't feel like he was thinking at one hundred percent.

"My next target." The blue in his mind came with its' own ideas, taking what he already knew and helping decide how to get what they needed. Loki smiled. There was blue around him, too.

"Tell me what you need." Clint walked towards their supplies, pulling out his own compound bow. He didn't always get the chance to use it on a mission. The grip felt familiar in his grip, familiar and incredibly foreign.

"I'll need a distraction. And an eyeball."

The planning is strange, as though there is a presence missing. The others don't notice it, and the idea of letting Loki be captured comes out. He can get their enemies all in one place, and they won't have their guard up. There is more here, something else Loki will not tell them. Clint doesn't like it, says nothing.

Loki wants to know about the Avengers Initiative. Clint, who was being considered, should know nothing. C****** didn't care that he knew, though, thought it was his business what he could end up in.

His head hurt. They were going to Germany, to steal iridium, for a portal to God-knew-where, for Loki.

The world was strangely blue, and his voice died before red hair and Russia slipped down his tongue. They stayed in his throat, with dark suits and ties that Clint never wore.

_XxX_

Their lab was easily moved, thankfully, the truck kept still long enough for Selvig to finish his work. The device finished, all that remained was their leader and the power source. Tony Stark's building in New York. Clint had never met the man, only heard things. He was brilliant, arrogant, selfish, too damn cocky, too sure of himself to ask for help. Too self-sacrificing, gave too much, nearly died and refused to speak as his insides choked on their own lifeblood. His arc reactor would power the portal. His invention would open the gate.

He turns to his men, in the jet they flew with stolen codes and a hold of weapons. He shoots, the arrow whizzing around to hit the perfect location on the other side of the Helicarrier. A bomb blows, the engine fails, they enter enemy territory. The floor feels familiar. He looks to the air ducts for a memory that swims away, an office and thrown paper balls.

The men are attacking the control room, falling like dominos. Their lives are a distraction, and for a moment, lists of crimes as long as his arm dance in his eyes, rap sheets for each beating heart that stops in that doorway. He shoots, the arrow reaches the computer and hacks in, shutting down power in the engine he hadn't hit. He can hear on his comm link people screaming, knows that Stark probably was already repairing the other, but they didn't need death, just time.

Time that was out for these men, enemies of SHIELD and fodder for Loki. He doesn't look as he heads away, towards the meeting point.

_XxX_

Red hair, an enemy in the way to the detention labs where Loki will be, where they were to continue towards Stark Tower.

Flaring kicks, sharp nails. He pulls the hair, and remembers another fight, in a ring on a mat. His eyes are swimming blue, and his head slams into the metal.

A name crosses his lips, so familiar that he can't believe he forgot.

"Nat…?" She knocks him out, and everything fades into black.

_XxX_

The world looks wrong, too dark and red, littered with the blood of those he killed, helped kill. His fingers feel stained, he wants to talk to Natasha, to Coulson, he wants to shoot until he has no fingers left, just bloody stumps stained with only him, no more blue. The room is dark, a familiar quarters when they can't go home just yet, one more job, one more task, too late to fly, too dangerous, sleep, sleep…

Natasha is there, watching him while he fights his way upwards, out of shimmering, sickening blue, towards the electronic lights he usually hated but now wished desperately looked more yellow, less blue.

"You're going to be alright." Natasha sounds sure, so sure, and so scared and sad, and she can't see the blue, can she?

"You… is that what you know? I gotta go in, flush him out… have to…" She sighs, weighed down by too many worries and stories, etched in her skin in blood, the lines faded now but she couldn't stop seeing them. His and hers matched, they'd always known they were a pair.

"Have you ever take your brain and play? Pull you out and put something else in? Do you know what its like to be unmade?" That wasn't right, he'd been there, halfway, like his mind had been poked full of holes and filled with glowing blue light, warm and cold, and so so bright.

"You know that I do." She did, didn't she, but Natasha saw red, only red, walls and blood and dark grinning faces after a mission, praise for the red, accents deep and familiar as home, as different as night and day. She saw cold gleaming metal, a bow string, a bullet never shot, medical walls and a holding cell filled with dark suits and ties she didn't wear.

"Why am I back? How did you get him out?" She almost smiles, grim.

"Cognitive recalibration. I hit you really hard in the head." He remembered that, like she had whacked the sense back into him, knocked the blue out until it seeped out of his ears.

"Thanks." He almost smiles back, a world of unspoken words in each gesture. They know each other like the back of their hands, muscle twitches and small movements speaking a world of things they can't find the words for. She was worried, he was lost, and there is someone missing here that he can't see.

"Tasha, how many agents…?" That isn't what he needs to know, not that, not numbers, not names. Just one, the one that he worked with like two sides of a coin, who should be here.

"Don't. Don't do that to yourself Clint. This is Loki. This is magic and monsters and nothing we were ever trained for." She knows what he asked, and isn't telling.

"Loki, he got away?" She nods.

"Yeah. Don't suppose you know where?"

"Didn't ask. Didn't need to know. He'll make a move soon, though. Today." Loki might have known he wouldn't be there for the end, or there was something off in his head. A film of blue was wrapped around what had happened the last few days, German faces and names and a building that was the life of its' creator. He couldn't make head nor tails of the jumbled mess, and guessed he wouldn't for a long time, when he could stop and think and breathe out the blue like poison.

"We gotta stop him." He looked up at her, confused.

"Yeah? Who's we?" He wanted to take the man out, knew he would likely be just as good a target as last time, a good heart in an empty mind full of things that would help Loki succeed. Who would Natasha trust, who would trust him?

"I don't know, whoever's left." A stirring of memory, an Initiative that was meant for this.

"Well, if I put an arrow through Loki's eyes, I'll sleep better at night." An arrow, not anything close to him, nowhere near that spear point.

"Now you sound like you," Natasha smiled a bit, relief obvious in the loose lines of her body.

"But you don't," he pointed out. Her voice was dark and tense, and she held herself as though she was injured in more than physical ways. "You're a spy, not a soldier. And now you want to wage a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?" Natasha had few connections here, and her loyalty was something more personal than the country.

"He didn't, I just…" She trails off, not speaking for a long moment.

"Natasha." His voice prompts her to speak again.

"There's red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out." Red and blue, too much of both, not enough dark and calm. He wanted Loki gone and for her to smile again in mischief, scaring the new agents into running the other way.

_XxX_

Captain Rogers, the American legend straight out of a comic book, is talking to Natasha when he emerges from the bathroom.

"Can you fly one of those jets?" Clint speaks up, gaining their attention.

"I can." Rogers looks at Natasha, who nods to the unspoken question. Rogers looks back at him, evaluating him for something Clint wasn't sure he had.

"You got a suit?" A sleeveless one, heavy armor that wouldn't get in the way of missions. The other agents he worked with were full of jokes about it and the designer until he started shooting them with Nerf bullets from the vents, hidden from view and laughing.

"Yeah." Rogers nodded, and looked at both of them.

"Then suit up." He walked back out, and Clint moved to find where his suit was stored, still here in the room. Natasha glanced at him.

"You good?" A million unspoken thoughts and questions.

"Yeah. Who wouldn't want to fight for Captain America? I think my inner twelve year old is going to die in excitement." He doesn't mention Coulson, doesn't want to know yet why there is such an obvious missing party from their group, the third leg of the team.

His vision isn't blue anymore, but when he wonders at the missing party, he wishes it were. The blue drowned out everything, and he doesn't want to feel it when he finds out there was a piece of his heart ripped out by the roots.

_XxX_

Captain Rogers in action is something Clint was sure people would pay to watch. Even the other agents were watching as they walked towards the jet hanger, and the one that tried to stop them didn't even try to enforce his order. He just backed away with a nod.

The jet is quiet, before Rogers turned to him from his seat in the cock pit, behind Natasha.

"You're a sharp shooter, right? We could use another eye in the sky." Clint nodded, not wanting to meet the man's earnest expression.

"Called Hawkeye for a reason. Who's all down there?"

"Stark, for now. Banner went down after Hulking out, and Thor is missing somewhere. We don't know… we don't know where they are." He didn't sound like he blamed Clint, so Clint fought down the urge to wince and determined that, whatever came through that portal, he would destroy them. The creatures that had sent Loki and the spear, they were at fault, he tried to remind himself. It wasn't the easiest plan, but he could try and remember that.

Natasha leaned forward, spoke into the comm link to Stark, who hadn't spoken since they'd boarded.

"Stark, we're heading north east." A grumble came through the speakers, familiar from press conferences and the news.

"What, did you stop for a drive-thru? Swing towards that park, I'll lay them out for you."

The aliens look like strange lobster, at least six feet tall and heavily armored. Their weapons didn't seem to do more than scratch Stark's armor, but they brought down the plane easily enough. He didn't want to think about what they would do to bare skin and bone.

They get out of the wreckage, and look up, to the hole in the sky releasing the lobster-men.

And whale ships. Clint didn't know who had created this species, but they appeared fond of overly armored sea creatures loaded with weapons. He glanced around, at all the civilians still in the war zone, and felt sick.

Rogers was talking to Stark again, and from his own comm link, Clint realized that Stark, unlike the others, believed that Banner was headed their way to help. Thor was by Loki, from the lightening and clouds that had gathered. Gods, or god-like aliens, were harder to kill than shoving out of a ship thousands of feet in the air.

Rogers turned to him and Natasha while they readied their weapons, the enemy nearing them with every moment.

"You think you can hold them off." Clint turned to look at him.

"Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure."

He and Natasha worked like clockwork, coordinated to each other as well as they had ever been.

"Just like Budapest all over again!" Natasha called over her shoulder at him, while she fired with both hands. He pulled another arrow back, watched it fly and take out an alien in the street. They weren't as fully armored as they looked, apparently.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently." It was an old running joke with them, practically a code word in its' own right, simple and so overly done he almost forgot that there never had been a mission in Budapest.

_XxX_

They were gathered in the town square, cleared of enemy and innocent bystanders. He'd had the dubious pleasure of saving several trapped children inside a bus. It made him burn in rage, the fear they'd had. He hadn't paused until they were freed; he would not have any deaths here that he could stop, especially not children.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor stated darkly, and Clint wanted to scoff, while he cared for his weapons in the lull.

"Yeah, well get in line." That was why they were all here, in the end. Loki had brought them all here.

Banner rode up, on a motor bike through the carnage of buildings and cars in such a nonchalant manner Clint had to give the guy props. Stark didn't sound surprised, even smug, but Banner looked the smallest bit surprised that he'd been expected.

"Well, tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." A red and gold figure was coming towards them, one of the whale ships following, likely enraged by its' aggressive behavior.

"I don't see how that's a party." He almost cracked up at Natasha's line. Would have, if he thought he would be able to stop.

"That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry."

In the back of his mind not freaking out, Clint noted that he'd been told wrong; this guys control must be near perfect, to have that kind of timing.

Rogers sent him to the rooftops, not a surprise. Stark taking orders ought to have been, but really wasn't. He just told him to clench up and lifted off. Despite his speech, Stark was careful in setting him down on the roof he'd pointed out, and even waved before heading towards the mass of aliens falling out of the sky.

_XxX_

He _liked _Stark, hoped the Initiative thing worked out, because the guy was good to work with. Snarky as hell, but he took whatever advice Clint threw at him, trusted his judgment and called out anything he saw that would be helpful to the others, unlike the lone wolf motto Clint had been told the guy had.

He saw Loki flying past, couldn't help the arrow that shot at the mans face, watched in grim pleasure as it exploded, though he knew it likely hadn't killed him. Still, it was nice to have had that, at least.

They had taken his rooftop, and he was out of arrows. Luckily, they were multi-use, he noted as he yanked out of a dead enemy nearby and leapt, swinging into the building below him by the rope.

There was a debate on his comm, a way to shut down the portal, a missile as a farewell gift, a one-way door. Despite himself, Clint almost said something, the door could go both ways, why wouldn't he at least try to keep it open?

But Natasha had to close it, doors had to be locked. It closed, and only at the last moment did a small figure fall out, tiny compared to the emptiness he fell from. Clint breathed in relief as the Hulk leapt out of nowhere and caught him.

Rogers and Thor were panicking on the ground, and he closed his eyes.

The Hulk roared. A gasp, from a new comm. Stark, the lucky bastard, was still alive.

_XxX_

He almost fired the arrow, when Loki woke up. Almost, but there were several presences behind him, and one had red hair. He held back, and Thor chained up the man who was his brother, once.

_XxX_

Shwarma was, as always, good. He and Natasha were stretched into each others' space, taking comfort in the presence. He didn't want to think about the dullness in everyone's eyes, the blank that spoke of death. He didn't want to realize that there would be only one more dark suit and tie.

_XxX_

The send off was anti climactic. Thor and Loki went off, using a strange contraption that, instead of a portal, shot the two off like an elevator.

There were good byes, an invitation to visit Stark Tower sometime, he had shooting simulators that Clint should check out, no really. A disk for Natasha, with no words spoken. Three vehicles left, two scientists in a showy convertible, a super soldier on a motorcycle and two agents in a black car, both staring at the disk.

Clint didn't know, later, who he wanted to hit the most.


	7. Chapter 7

Coulson was incredibly tired of all these supernatural situations. First there was Stark in all of his genius, self-sacrificing stupidity, parts one and two. Then there was the Dr. Banner to watch out for, and aliens inn New Mexico. Captain America was just waking up from a seventy year long nap under the ice. Coulson didn't mind the last part, but wished that he could return to drug lords and weapons manufacturers that couldn't fly.

Fury met him at the air-strip, jacket flapping as he walked.

"How bad is it?" Coulson frowned.

"That's the problem, Sir, we don't know. Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tessaract an hour ago." Fury scowled as they neared the base.

"NASA didn't clear Selvig to do any tests." It had surprised Coulson that Selvig had agreed to even be a part of this project, considering his obvious distaste for the government. The lure of such incredible technology must have been hard to bear. Or he didn't trust them not to accidentally blow up the planet.

"He didn't. Wasn't even in the same room. Spontaneous advancement."

"It turned itself on?" Hill asked, speaking for the first time since their arrival. She walked briskly to keep up with them, as collected as ever.

"Power levels are rising off the charts. When Selvig couldn't get it to turn off, we ordered the evac. Campus should be clear in a half hour." Fury nodded.

"Do better." He didn't question Coulson's ability to do so.

"Yes sir."

_XxX_

He is with several agents trying to get the pieces of Phase Two out of the building when the floor begins to shake. Quickly, he orders them to leave the weapons and go. They only just make it out of the complex before the walls begin to collapse. He and the three other agents with him stand around their vehicle, already loaded with what they'd managed to get out before, and watch the lab collapse.

"Director Fury, do you copy?"

"The Tessaract is with hostile force. I have men down." Barton had been in the lab.

"Coulson, get back to base. This is level seven. As of now, we are at war."

"What do we do?" There are two paths in front of them; Phase Two and the Avengers Initiative. His own task here at the base had made the first option possible. He thought of Stark, inexplicably, and his shut-down of the weapons manufacturing. His comments after the Expo, about being a nuclear deterrent, and how he should have learned from his father that such a thing only ended in an arms race.

Fury didn't answer.

_XxX_

He was taking a bit too much pleasure in threatening the Russian general that was currently being interrogated by Agent Romanov, but he didn't particularly care.

"Put the woman on the phone or I will blow the block before you can make the lobby." Romanov sounded annoyed when she answered.

"Are you kidding? I'm working!" He shook his head.

"This takes precedence." She protested further, and he could hear the General speaking in the background in confusion.

"Look, you can't pull me out of this right now." Coulson wanted to wait until they were private to break the news to her, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen.

"Barton's been compromised." There was a pause.

"Let me put you on hold." The phone clattered to the ground, and for a few minutes all he could hear were the sounds of Romanov beating the General and his goons into next week.

"Where's Barton now?" She asked, and the heat signature that showed her began to walk out of the building, picking up something on the way out.

"We don't know."

"But he's alive?" She sounded unconcerned, but he could hear the worry under her words.

"We think so. I'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first, you need to talk to the big guy." She sounded like she was smiling when she answered.

"Coulson, you know Stark trusts me as far as he can throw me." He smirked a bit, both at her words and the fact that she associated 'big guy' with Stark.

"Oh, I'm handling Stark. You get the big guy." For the second time, there was a long pause, before she asked where her transport would be.

_XxX_

Stark was being stubborn, and refused to answer his phone. JARVIS repeated the line that he was unavailable at the moment, and asked for him to leave a message. Coulson was a bit surprised, not at Stark, but JARVIS was usually fairly helpful in reaching his creator.

He used the code he'd been given to break through JARVIS' protocols, from Stark himself, actually, and reached the phone.

"Stark, we need to talk." The video feed brought up Stark's face, head piece visible on his forehead. The background was of the top level of his tower, which was good, considering the fact that Coulson was headed up now, using the emergency code that had come with the one for JARVIS.

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message." Somehow, if there was one, Coulson wouldn't be surprised.

"This is urgent." The semi-robotic look Stark had been holding dropped, for a look of annoyance.

"Then leave it urgently." The elevator doors opened and he walked out into the top level.

Oh. That was why he'd been so difficult.

"Phil!" Pepper Potts stood and walked up to him. It was obvious they'd been celebrating, there was champagne and neither were in the formal attire that would indicate official business.

The arc reactor. It had gone online today. The whole building was self-powered now. He'd interrupted their private moment, and for a moment he felt some guilt for it before masking it with the knowledge of how important this was. Even if he did also have to think about how few moments these two likely had, considering how busy Stark always was.

"We need you to look this over." The playful look on Stark's face faded, but he didn't move to take the files.

"I don't like being handed things." There was something behind that line, but Coulson didn't know what. Pepper knew how to deal with it, anyway, taking them and placing the files in Stark's hands, swapping out the champagne.

"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday." Even as he said it, Stark was walking away, towards his computers.

"This isn't a consultation." Stark already knew that, of course he did, but he needed to emphasize how important this was. Sure enough, he kept moving towards the computers, but turned to look at him when Pepper asked about the Avengers Initiative.

"That was scrapped. And I thought I wasn't eligible, anyway? I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others." He got the computer running.

"That, I did know." Pepper smiled at him, and he managed a small smile back, before going back to business.

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore." If Stark didn't already have an idea what was going on, he'd be shocked. He'd always managed to keep a finger to the pulse of SHIELD, especially after the incident with his father's old things holding a cure for his arc reactor. Coulson knew exactly how much faith that had shaken up in the man, and was honestly surprised he listened to them at all, ever. Let alone keep contact with him, Coulson. Coulson himself hadn't cared for the method Fury had used to find Stark's breaking point (he hadn't found it, really. Stark had proved that he could keep things more or less together, until the party. Even then, Coulson personally felt that Rhodes' own actions had escalated the issue. But that wasn't important at the moment).

Stark and Pepper were talking quietly on the other side of the room, but Stark had the files set up on his system, so he took that as accepting the task and turned to let them be a bit private, at least. Pepper walked back to him a moment, a small smile still on her face.

"Let me offer you a ride."

_XxX_

Coulson had never thought he'd be in a jet with Captain America, the original super soldier, and felt flustered for the first time in many years.

"So, this Doctor Banner tried to replicate the serum that was used on me?" Captain Rogers was looking at the file, frowning. Hopefully not at the tech; lord knew Stark would have a field day if Captain Rogers was visibly struggling with his inventions.

"A lot of people were. You were the world's first super hero. Banner thought gamma radiation might be the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."

"Didn't really work out for him, did it?" Coulson remembered the mess in Harlem, and shook his head.

"Not really, no. When he's got that thing under control, though, the guys like a Shephan Hawking." Captain Rogers looked up in confusion, and Coulson abruptly remembered that there weren't many known geniuses from his time that would make sense to use.

"He's like a… really smart person." He sounded like a first grader with a crush, is what that was. He was usually more put together, even when star-struck. He put it down to the situation and left it at that. (He knew it was something else, but to acknowledge the fact would put him more off of his game.)

"I have to say, it's an honor to meet you in person. I mean, I sort of met you, before. I watched you while you were sleeping." Shit, shit, what on earth made him say that? He was getting an amused look, which only made him want to hide behind his hands even more. Cl- Barton would be laughing hysterically by now.

"I mean, I was present when you were unconscious, from the ice. It's just… a huge honor to have you on board." Hopefully, he could jump overboard if this was ever mentioned. The pilots couldn't hear them, at least.

"Well, I hope I'm the man for the job." He looked less than confident, which made sense, considering how out of place he had to feel, seventy years after he ought to have died. Most people would have had a nervous breakdown.

"You are. Absolutely. Oh, you've had a uniform redesign. I… had some input." It looked good, if not entirely modern. But that was the point.

"Aren't stars and stripes a little… old fashioned?" Coming from the man that practically exemplified them, not really.

"Everything that has happened, the things that are going to come to light… maybe we need a little old-fashioned." Thankfully, they were nearing their destination, and he could escape long enough to smack his forehead on a wall before meeting with Fury and leaving Captain Rogers with Dr. Banner and Agent Romanov. Watched you sleep. Really.

_XxX_

They all met on the bridge. Captain Rogers handed Director Fury a five, for some reason, when they lifted off and vanished.

"Where are you on finding the Tessaract?" Dr. Banner wanted to get right to it, which made sense. He didn't want to be here, and would leave as soon as he possibly could. Fury turned to him to explain.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." Romanov shook her head.

"That's not going to be fast enough." She was as stressed as he was, though only two people were likely to notice that, and one of the was missing.

"You need to narrow the field." Dr. Banner gave out instructions on setting out spectrometers, which from what Coulson knew of them ought to help. He was glad to have more than one scientist working on this, and felt a stir of curiosity for how Banner and Stark would get on. Like oil and fire, or oil and water, probably. Stark tended to be like that. Captain Rogers would likely have a bad reaction to him, though, especially with Stark being so anti-government and weapons.

The program for recognizing Loki's face was, as expected, taking forever. It was a long shot, to be honest, but it was all they had to work with. That and Dr. Banner's algorithm, but it was probable that Stark would be needed to finish that step in the plan, so until he got here, they were waiting. He made his way over to Captain Rogers, who stood off to the side, away from the techs working at the computers.

"Would you mind doing me a favor? I have this set of collectible cards, Captain America cards, I mean, and I hoped I could get you to sign them. If it isn't too much trouble." Well, an improvement on watching him sleep, at least. He didn't look surprised at the question, which meant that Romanov had likely spilled while she was escorting him and Dr. Banner inside.

"No, no, it's fine." Coulson couldn't help bragging a bit about them, and would have likely talked the man's ear off if Sitwell hadn't gotten a match at that moment.

"Location?"

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He isn't exactly hiding." No, which meant he didn't care if he was caught. Barton would know who was there, and whatever they needed, it was likely a high enough security target that a distraction was needed. Fury was going to send Captain Rogers. He'd send his own team to try and find where they were being led away from. It would distract him from who it was that had planned this.

Not well enough.

_XxX_

Fury only looked at him when a message came in from Stark, stating that if they wanted his help, they ought to say so directly, instead of leaving him to track their jets. Which meant that he could, in fact, track them. Good to know.

"You did say to get him updated on the status of this mission. When you get Stark, you get all of Stark. We both know the consultant bit is bull." Fury laughed, just once, before send an email back, with the entire mission status. Coulson wished he could see Stark's face when that arrived, and wondered if he could get JARVIS to send it to him.

"We have apprehended Loki, and are en route back. Picked up Stark as well, and he's riding in as an extra security force. I'm sending the recording of the fight now." Romanov reported, as the aforementioned film arrived. Captain Rogers was as good as ever, Stark overly dramatic and hadn't even bothered waiting to bring out the big guns. Loki was well trained, and obviously from the same people as Thor. Unlike in the lab before, though, he didn't use as much magic in this fight, strengthening his suspicions. None of his teams had apprehended Barton, but they had found a place with a retina scanner that allowed in the man Loki had killed; they were missing a sizeable chunk of iridium.

"Sir, we have a problem. Thor has stopped our flight and taken Loki. Both Rogers and Stark have gone out to apprehend them. Orders?" Fury leaned forward towards the mike, though it wouldn't make a difference.

"Leave it. Try and land, get them all back on board. But I think they can handle Thor, and from what I heard, those two aren't on the best of terms." A few minutes passed.

"Rogers, Loki and Thor now on board. Stark decided to make his own way back, so I'd expect him shortly. None are injured, but from what I'm told, Stark may be having heart issues; Thor hit him with some heavy charges." Coulson doubted that; the arc reactor was made to stand surges and drops, so long as it still had power, and the suit helped absorb the external damages. But he was one of the few that knew how the thing worked; even Fury didn't have the whole story, and the file Stark had allowed into the database didn't have a section on it at all.

He went to meet him at the hanger set aside for the armor.

_XxX_

"So, where were you when this mess was called in?" Stark sounded curious, as they walked away from the locked-away armor. He rubbed his chest, twice, before he dropped his hand, so Coulson hoped it wasn't pain from some malfunction.

"At the office." Stark wasn't to know about the weapons, he would obviously be against it, which the Council found unhelpful, and Coulson found pleasing. He didn't want to know how powerful a weapon that could be made from Stark and the Tessaract.

"Not visiting your pianist friend in Portland?" How Stark remembered Portland, mentioned once in passing, Coulson really didn't know.

"He's a cellist, and no, I really don't have time to visit out of state. The job is rather demanding, and tickets aren't the cheapest things in the world." That and the person in Portland had moved, but to explain that would take more time and reveal more about him than Coulson wanted to do, even with Stark. He trusted the man, more than most, but some things were private.

"It's a stabilizing unit." He called out, to the meeting they'd just reached. He'd heard more than Coulson had of the previous conversation, apparently. Coulson felt off his game.

"Just give me a weekend, and I'll fly you out. Gotta keep the love alive." Stark murmured, before he turned back to the room and commandeered the conversation, which quickly was brought off-topic to whatever Stark felt like babbling about. After a moment, when he had everyone's attention on him, Stark continued theorizing on what the iridium was for, and how to find the Tessaract with Banner. Oil and water it was, then. Coulson left to read Nat- Romanov's report on the incident. He needed to learn the group dynamics, after all. Fury wanted him to be handler for this team. Apparently he thought the Avengers liked him enough to listen.

_XxX_

When he got back from that, along with about three dozen small disasters that hadn't needed his attention, he found Thor alone in the room. He walked up to him, noting the pensive expression.

"As soon as Loki appeared, we moved Jane Foster. Yesterday, she was asked to our observatory in Traunsee. Handsome fee, private plane. She'll be there until this is over." Thor looked up at him, relief clear on his face.

"I thank you. It is no accident that Loki targeted Eric Selvig. I dread what he plans for him once he's done. Eric is a good man." Thor tended to see people that way, he noticed; a good man, or not. There was little grey area for him, and considerable leeway towards good. It was an optimistic view of the world, one Coulson occasionally wished he had.

"He talks about you a lot. You changed his life. You changed everything around here." While he'd created a lot more work, Thor had left a powerful impression, and it certainly wasn't a bad one. Thor shook his head.

" They were better as they were. We pretend on Asgard that we're more advanced, but we...we come here battling like Bilchsteim." Coulson felt his brow raise, just a bit. Clint always said his eyebrow could get a terrorist to tell his secrets.

"Like a what?"

"Bilchsteim. You know, huge, scaly, big antlers. You don't have those?" He seemed genuinely surprised, like these things were a universal constant.

"Don't think so." Thor nodded, in deep thought.

"Well they are repulsive. And they trample anything in their path." He wondered if this was how Captain Rogers felt whenever people made some kind of reference.

Fury arrived, and Coulson took his leave. He did have other duties, as much as he wanted to devote all his energy to finding Bar- the Tessaract, and the agents under the control of Loki. Apparently whatever he had done didn't need him to be present for it to work, which was unfortunate.

_XxX_

They should have known, they should have _known _that Loki would have a plan to get out. He knew about the Initiative, he had one of its' members under his power, of course he knew that they would collect them!

The Helicarrier shook, and one of the engines must have gone out, as it heaved to one side. His comm link was full of chatter he didn't need; he headed straight for the experimental weapons, before he headed to Loki's containment chamber. The others were capable of dealing with the intruders, he hoped, and Loki could not be allowed to escape in this chaos.

He listened with half an ear as he headed down, to the detention levels. Stark and Captain Rogers were at the engine, and had managed to get it back up and running. Stark had designed the Helicarrier, it stood to reason he'd go for that first. Banner was the Hulk, he'd leapt out and had tumbled out of the carrier. If he lived, they'd likely never see him again.

Natasha had been ordered to go after Clint, and he spared a moment to worry, about both of them, before he reached the cell.

Thor was inside the chamber, the drop point already open.

"Move away, please." He could see Thor look at him in fear, for his, Coulson's safety. Loki looked pleased. Coulson wondered what Clint had been forced to say, what all Loki knew of him, the behind-the-curtains man.

"You like this? We started development after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Would you like to find out?" He likely looked strange, the only agent out of battle gear, but that came with being a handler. They rarely wore field gear, and weren't seen as a threat.

Loki vanished. A piercing pain ripped through his chest, below his heart. He gasped, and fell to the ground. It felt like his chest had been shredded by a thousand tiny blades.

Loki pulled the lever, and Thor fell, still yelling (when had he started?) to the heavens and at Loki.

"You're gonna lose." Even if he died, he would have the last word. Clint wouldn't have agreed, or let him think like that, but he wasn't here, and that was because of Loki.

"Am I?" Loki looked indulgent, as he glanced back.

"It's in your nature." Loki wasn't a man like Red Skull, or even Stark; he was missing something.

"Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?" It wasn't falling anymore, the other engine was back online, the first repaired minutes ago.

"You lack conviction." Loki scoffed, and moved a bit closer.

"I don't think I-" Coulson pulled the trigger, and he was engulfed in fire.

"So that's what it does."

_XxX_

He knew that it had only taken a few minutes for him to be reached, by Fury, but it felt longer. He could feel his heart beating slower, and heard Natasha announce her capture of Clint over the comm. At least they were both safe, for now. Small miracles.

"Sorry, boss. I got rabbited." Fury leaned close, kneeling on the floor in front of him.

"Just stay awake. Eyes on me." He sounded panicked, but Coulson just felt… calm, and a bit cold. From the metal walls, probably.

"No, I'm clockin' out here…" He never really did, on the job, but it didn't feel like a wound he could bounce back from.

"Not an option." It was an order, perhaps a plea.

"It's alright, boss. This was never gonna work if they didn't have something to…" His eyes closed, he could hear some mumbling, perhaps yelling, around him, and the world went dark.

_XxX_

He only caught flashes of the battle. Perspective was hard to get, around here. He was surrounded in white, and he was alone, except for the images he could get of the team. He felt pride at their actions, how pulled together they looked.

He felt fear several times, too. Stark's fall, injuries that he could see and the sheer destruction of the city.

He slept, or perhaps faded out, and had no idea of the passage of time.

The world was dark. The Avengers would shine bright on Earth, but he slept on in the cool darkness.


	8. Chapter 8

Feel free to ignore this chapter, it's pretty self indulgent of me and had no place in the movie, which is, rather obviously, what this story has been about. I just wanted to tie up some loose ends I left in other chapters, which some of you have noticed, I've seen.

Thanks for reading, and dealing with the huge update gaps!

_XxX_

It took several weeks to get them all together again, and Fury would be lying if he said he thought that he was looking forward to this meeting.

Captain Rogers had been the hardest to track down, as he had no real way to track the man. Finally, he'd had to ask Stark to find him, and found that he'd apparently been doing so already, in a way; Rogers had been sending post cards.

Now they were all gathered in the bridge once again, and the scene was familiar, with a new face in the form of Barton. He was still on leave, as was Romanov, and Fury had no idea what they'd been spending their vacation doing. He made it a point not to track his agents when they needed a break, unless he had a good reason to do so. He'd been close to making that call anyway.

"So, Cyclops, what was so important we all needed to be here? Some of us have three other jobs, you know." Stark lounged backwards in one of the chairs, fiddling with his tablet. The others seemed rather immune to his attitude; Barton even laughed, just a small chuckle, into his sleeve.

"Well, damn Stark, I'd forgotten for a moment how important you are. Please, feel free to come back when your social calendar will allow." Stark rolled his eyes, but didn't look up.

"Nah, now I'm curious. Like a cat, that way."

"You'll die?" Barton leaned forward to look at him, as though signs of death would be apparent on his skin. Rogers rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Satisfaction revives me, come on, don't you know this saying?" Stark looked up to leer. "And that's any form of satisfaction, by the way."

"You offering?" Stark laughed, and looked back down.

"I may be currently unattached, but I'm not that hard up." Barton made to retort, but Fury cut him off.

"You two can flirt later. I have an announcement to make to the five of you." They were all looking at him, disguised interest and less-than disguised interest apparent.

"I told you all, seven weeks ago, what had happened in the containment area of the Helicarrier when Loki attacked." A few nods, a shuddered expression from Barton.

"I lied." Heads snapped up.

"Agent Phil Coulson, while gravely injured, was reached swiftly enough by the medical team that he did not die in the cell, and made it to a private medical unit aboard the Helicarrier. He had lost a lot of blood, and had dangerous internal damage, but I was informed by his doctor that he is expected to make a full recovery, and he has regained consciousness. Wanted to offer his congratulations to you all on the final battle in New York." He stopped, and watched for the fallout.

"Aw, damn." Stark fell forward with a snap, and pulled a five out of his wallet, to hand to Barton, who grinned. Rogers looked confused, and Romanov sighed.

"What was-" Stark turned to Banner, who paused in his question.

"We were betting on whether he'd have the guts to say it to our faces. I thought he'd just send an email, or better yet, send Coulson back into his office and pretend nothing ever happened." Banner shook his head.

"Stark, what the hell?" Fury felt like he was living up to his name, though he felt some amusement as well. Not a little relief, too, that they had already known. Barton might have killed him, otherwise.

"You think that editing the original footage, deleting his medical papers and turning off the cameras in his private room were enough to fool me? I'm offended, really." When the others turned to him in confusion, Stark shrugged. Apparently he hadn't told them how he'd known?

"JARVIS was already in the system, and I wanted to see it for myself. He got the video of the fight before Fury did, and it wasn't a huge leap to find a room without any video recordings. Gaps in security are pretty telling, especially after…" he stopped himself. Rogers looked up at Fury, earnest.

"Sir, if Agent Coulson is conscious, will he be up for visitors any time soon? I have something of his." Fury would be willing to bet his eye patch that he'd signed those cards.

"Not yet, or not all together. His doctor wants full relaxation for another week before he has to deal with this circus." he moved to leave them, before Romanov caught his eye. She nodded, once, slowly, before she turned back to the group, and Fury wondered how long Stark had held off telling them before spilling, how long they'd been sitting and waiting to find out the truth.

He didn't want to know.

This did prove that Coulson was the man for the job, though; their concern for him made him a valuable member of their team.

Fury grinned to himself. Good, that meant he didn't have to deal with them. The Council could fuck themselves, if they wanted someone else.

_XxX_

Coulson woke from the fog, and felt clearer than he had in days. He knew that he had watched the final battle, that Fury had told him he'd live, but beyond that, he had no idea what had happened, or how long it had been since.

He opened his eyes, and took in the white walls and TV, typical of a medical ward room. His was private, empty except for him, the machines he was hooked to, and the figure in the chair next to the bed.

Wait, what.

Clint Barton was sitting in the chair, a book in his hands. He looked up when Coulson shifted, and his eyes lit up.

"You're awake! Are you lucid?" He leaned forward, not crowding but still in rather personal space. Coulson didn't mind, that was normal for him.

"More or less. What day is it?" Clint rubbed the back of his neck, looking up at the ceiling.

"Thursday the eighteenth. Of August. You've been in here for almost two months, bobbing in and out of consciousness. They're weaning you off of the heavier drugs, now that you're pretty healed up. Are you alright?" He leaned back, hand near the Nurse Call button, or the SHIELD equivalent. Which basically amounted to 'Nurse, doctor, and a full medical team of brutishly strong interns to hold down troublesome patients' call button.

"I'm fine. Drowsy. Are you…" He didn't even know what he wanted to ask.

"Fine, yeah, had some time to get adjusted. Fury told us you had died, when Loki attacked, you know," he said, almost conversationally.

"I know. I may have told him to, when I thought I was actually going to die. You weren't much of a team." Clint leveled him a look.

"Of course you did. Makes perfect sense. But if you ever do that again, I might make sure you weren't lying. Do you know how terrified I was? How bad we all were? Stark defended you to Loki, even." That was a bit surprising.

"He's full of surprises." Clint smiled, ruefully, before turning abruptly behind himself and grabbing a bag.

"Almost forgot. Some things for you, cause the others couldn't be here. We've been on shifts," he added, and glanced at Coulson for a moment before looking back down.

"I had no idea you all cared so much." Clint didn't dignify the rather obvious lie with a response. He hoped it was obvious; if he didn't think he was somewhat important to the Avengers, his death wouldn't have been enough to push them into action.

"Here, from Stark, Natasha, Steve, Bruce and me. We think Thor got the message that you were alive, but it's hard to tell. His scientist girlfriend, Foster, is pretty sure he got it, anyway." Coulson barely listened, as he looked at the pile of objects in his lap.

A new phone, courtesy of Stark, with a note on it that pointed to the side and said 'emergency taser button, don't try it on me.'

Signed vintage Captain America cards, two sets. One was his, a bit foxed around the edges, and stained with blood. The others were perfectly preserved, somehow. Coulson had no idea how he'd gotten a hold of them; these were almost priceless. All said

'_To the real super hero. _

_-Captain Steve 'America' Rogers._

A CD of orchestra music, with a famous cellist on the front. There was no name, but it was so obviously Natasha he wanted to laugh.

A simple 'Get Well Soon!' teddy bear. The bear, somehow, was bright green. This had no name either. Coulson chuckled, and set them aside on the table, trying to twist as little as possible. Clint moved immediately to help.

"There's a card, too, signed by all of us, and there are probably a hundred others from people that Fury didn't want to fill the room with. Other agents, all surviving members of the Howling Commandos, no idea why, and a bunch of random people. I think Stark mentioned you at a press conference or something." Coulson shook his head and grinned.

"He would. I would bet they all say 'Agent' on them, too." Clint laughed, before settling back into his chair.

"We were really worried. Fury didn't say a word until a few days ago, cause it was touch and go for so long, but Stark told us all the day we sent Loki off. Sort of. He passed along the footage and stuff to Tasha and me, no idea how he told the others. Banner is staying at Stark Tower, that might be it."

"I see. I'm sorry I couldn't heal faster, or get some word out that I was going to be fine."

"Did you know?"

"It didn't feel like my time, for the last few weeks. Not a perfect reason, but there it is." Clint nodded, and they lapsed into silence for a few minutes. Coulson felt tired again, and guessed he'd fall asleep before too long.

"Did you bring me a get well gift, too? Some balloons, maybe?" He felt a bit presumptuous, asking like that, but Clint had said his own name as well, and he'd known him long enough to not be worried about his reaction to a brash question.

"Would liven up this place, wouldn't it?" Clint grinned at him.

"Nah, my gift is something I'm told I can't give you until you're actually released from Medical. Doc's orders. So get well soon, okay?" He felt his eyes get heavy, and nodded without much thought.

"Go to sleep, sir." Something brushed his cheek, and he fell asleep, likely grinning like a fool.


End file.
